FDA notified healthcare professionals and patients of revisions to the label for Ortho Evra, a skin patch approved for birth control, that includes a bolded warning about higher exposure to estrogen for women using the weekly patch compared to taking a daily birth control pill containing 35 micrograms of estrogen. A woman on Ortho Evra may be exposed to approximately 60% more estrogen than if she were taking a typical 35 microgram estrogen birth control pill. Estrogen use is linked to blood clots in the legs and lungs and other clotting problems such as strokes and heart attacks. It is not known if women using Ortho Evra have a higher risk of serious side effects than women taking the typical 35 microgram estrogen pills.Technorati Tags: Ortho Evra, FDA
I'm Dr. Joshua Schwimmer, a nephrologist and internal medicine physician in New York City. • Kidney Notes was the first active nephrology blog. (Trivia: Kidney Notes is so old that the National Library of Medicine still uses it as an example of how to formally cite blogs.) • Professionally, you can find me at Kidney.nyc. • Kidney Notes is for educational purposes only, not medical advice. Consult qualified health care professionals. See disclaimer.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
...and here's the FDA's formal warning about the Ortho Evra birth control patch
The complete warning is here.