Ortho Evra
February 19, 2007Ortho Evra patch doubles blood clot risk
According to a recent study, women who use the Ortho Evra patch face more than twice the risk of blood clots than those who use birth control pills. The results of the study were reported in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.Scientists from i3 Drug Safety in Auburndale, Massachusetts compared medical records for 49,000 Ortho Evra users and 202,000 women who used birth control pills between April 2002—when the birth control patch was first released—and December 2004. The study revealed that women using the Ortho Evra patch were 2.2 times more likely to suffer blood clots compared with women on the pill.
Researchers noted that their findings supported a warning about the risk of birth control patch side effects released by the Food and Drug Administration in 2005. The agency warned that because the Ortho Evra patch releases 60% more estrogen into a woman’s bloodstream than birth control pills, users were at a much greater risk of “thrombotic events,” including blood clots and related conditions such as heart attack or stroke.
Because of the risk of birth control patch side effects, many doctors have stopped prescribing Ortho Evra to their patients. Earlier studies have shown that there have been three times as many birth control patch deaths among Ortho Evra users than among women taking the pill.
Hundreds of women who were injured after using the patch have filed Ortho Evra lawsuits against its manufacturer, Ortho-McNeil. Despite the thousands of women who have suffered injuries as a result of the birth control patch, neither Ortho-McNeil nor the FDA have issued an Ortho Evra recall.