Contraceptive *** Patch Linked to 17 Deaths
1/5/2005
By Elaine McGinnis
Ortho Evra: more dangerous than you think.
The contraceptive patch, Ortho Evra, is responsible for the deaths of
at least 17 women since its release on the market in 2002, according
to an article in The New York Post. The most recent reported victim is
18-year-old Zakiya Kennedy.
Zakiya Kennedy collapsed last April on the upper east side of New York
City while waiting for the subway. She died one hour later on the way
to the emergency room. Her father, Kevin, told ABC News' Chris Cuomo
that, prior to his daughters death, "She was complaining about pains in
her leg or in her shoulder. She thought it was from her exercising."
The autopsy revealed Kennedy died because a blood clot had entered her
lung. Called a pulmonary embolism, the blood clot is a dangerous side
effect of the birth control patch that she wore.
Ortho Evra is used by more than 400,000 women. It is similar to the
birth control pill, yet manufacturers tout it as more convenient.
Women wear the patch for one week for three weeks in a row and skip
the fourth week. It works by secreting pregnancy-preventing hormones
into the blood via the skin.
Regrettably, Kennedys death is not an isolated case. The New York Post
used Freedom of Information laws to obtain records from the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration to discover that 16 previous deaths and
21life-threatening cases have already occurred.
For example, a 37-year-old mother of two suffered a massive stroke
after using the patch for only 12 days. She has recently filed a
lawsuit against Ortho-McNeil, the patchs manufacturer.
Dr. Andrew Friedman, head researcher of the womens unit for
Ortho-McNeil, says being aware of the signs, such as leg pain, swelling
and shortness of breath, are important. It could be a sign of a
potentially dangerous clot.
Friedman defends Ortho-McNeil by reminding consumers: On TV, almost
half of the time of the advertisement is devoted to talking about the
potential risks and potential warnings that women should be aware of.
Yet there is no mention of death as a side effect.
Kennedy's grandmother, Roberta Alloway, says Ortho-McNeil should
increase warning labels so women are aware of what they are taking.
They need to really let people know that my granddaughter and other
people have died from this patch, she told ABCs Cuomo.
"My granddaughter was an A student. Her life was cut short because she
wore a patch to protect herself from getting pregnant," she said.
Dr. Shaun Biggers of New York Presbyterian Hospital says that very few
women are expected to die from Ortho Evra. He told Cuomo: Based on our
best estimates less than two per 100,000 women less than the age of
35 will die from complications of the patch.
Yet more than twice that number have already died.
Concerned Women for Americas Senior Policy Director Wendy Wright is
saddened by the outlook of these medical professionals: Sadly, some
medical and pharmaceutical officials believe that it is OK for healthy
women to die in exchange for selling more of their products. In their
minds, dead or injured women are a worthy price for sexual freedom and
higher profits.
Lester A. Ruppersberger, D.O., a gynecologist at St. Marys Medical
Center in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, told Physicians for Life that the
numbers didnt surprise him. Its about money. Its about marketing. I
hear the Ortho salesman in here every week. He doesnt talk about the
pill at all anymore. All he wants to talk about is the patch, because
thats what he gets his commission on -- how many he sells.
Ruppersberger continued, Birth control pills did not do what everybody
expected them to do. [T]hey increased the rate of unwanted pregnancies,
abortion rates, sexually transmitted disease rates, abuse rates, and
pornography rates. But wasnt the pill supposed to free women?