The weekly contraceptive patch Ortho Evra is often touted as one of the more convenient forms of birth control, but annoyances such as the patch falling off are causing women to abandon it in favor of other methods, according to health officials.
A recent study by the University of Maryland at Baltimore and the University of Rochester showed women were more likely to ditch the patch than dump the more traditional birth control pill.
The pill is still the No. 1 method of birth control among women on the campus and across the nation, according to University Health Center officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Even so, the number of students using the patch has increased since it became available on the campus in 2002, said Tara Torchia, the health center sexual health coordinator. But last year, more university students pitched the patch in favor of the vaginal contraceptive – NuvaRing – which lasts three weeks and releases estrogen and progestin hormones when inserted into the vagina, Torchia said.
The campus pharmacy filled 303 new prescriptions for the patch last year compared to 404 new prescriptions in 2004 – a 25 percent decrease, according to data provided by Deirdre Younger, the pharmacy coordinator. But new prescriptions for the ring jumped about 45 percent between 2004 and last year.
The contraceptive patch, which protects women from unwanted pregnancies by releasing hormones into the body, is marketed as being convenient and discrete because it is applied to the skin. But some students stopped using the patch, considering it a nuisance, and switched to other forms of birth control, Torchia said.
“A lot of women complain about it falling off, and they find that frustrating,” she said. “Also a lot of women complain about it [the patch] getting a lot of fuzz on it from their towels after they shower. It sticks to people’s underwear or they feel it on their skin a little bit – it’s just not comfortable for them.”
In order to use the patch correctly, women shouldn’t apply lotion, makeup or body products to skin where they will place the patch, Torchia said. She recommends shaving the area so the patch will adhere better.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends women apply the 1.75-inch square to the buttocks, lower abdomen or upper body (excluding breasts) and replace it weekly on the same day of the week for three weeks. The patch would decrease the chance that women would miss a dose because it’s applied weekly, unlike the pill, which women have to take daily, according to a 2005 FDA news release.
A clinical trial of 4,578 women, where 3,319 used Ortho Evra and the others used the pill, showed patch users were able to follow the convenient usage guidelines and apply the patch weekly, according to the FDA. But the agency also reported in 2001 that about 5 percent of the patch users had a least one patch fall off in clinical trials.
“It’s like using a sticker for a week,” said a 20-year-old university employee who wished to be unnamed in this story. She used the patch for two months and said it was uncomfortable and left a ring of lint on her. After experimenting with the pill and the patch, the woman switched to the ring a year and a half ago and hasn’t looked back.
“You only have to use it once a month, and you can’t feel it all,” she said. “You don’t have to worry about taking a pill everyday. I’m horrible at remembering to do something once a day.”
“I wouldn’t go back to the pill or the patch,” she added.
The patch has always been more popular than the ring, Torchia said, but increases in the number of ring users could be caused from reports of the increased risk of blood clots in patch users, she said.
The FDA added a new label to Ortho Evra advising women that using the patch exposes them to higher estrogen levels than birth control pills. Ortho Evra users are exposed to 60 percent more estrogen than women who take birth control pills with 35 micrograms of estrogen, according the new FDA label. And as the level of estrogen increases, so does the risk of blood clots, said Carole Meyers, medical director for Planned Parenthood of Maryland, but since there is no consensus that the patch causes blood clots, women shouldn’t panic, she said.
“It does not say that the patch has caused any particular problems,” Meyers said. “We don’t really know.”
A number of women are still using the patch, Meyers said, and she still considers it a good form of birth control.
“The patch is a good method for a lot of women and shouldn’t be discounted as a bad method,” she said. “It’s a lot of women who are happy on the patch. If it’s working for you then that’s your method.
Contact reporter Sharahn D. Boykin at boykindbk@gmail.com.
