Until now, regulators and patch-maker Ortho McNeil, a Johnson and Johnson subsidiary, had maintained the patch was expected to be associated with similar risks as the pill. But a strongly worded warning was added to the patch label Thursday that says women using the patch will be exposed to about 60 percent more estrogen than those using typical birth control pills.
Yikes! You do not want to be mucking around with hormones like that. And check out this advice from one MD:
"If the patch is delivering too much estrogen, then it may need to be redesigned," Miller said. "Women should not just take off their patch; they risk pregnancy. If they are worried and want to change off the patch, they can wait to get something else."
As it happens, her advice is sound. To take a body from a huge dose of estrogen --or any hormone-- to zero overnight is extremely dangerous. You have to cycle down slowly. But doesn't she make it sound as if the worst possible outcome would be pregnancy?
Hey. While we're on the subject (I hesitate to bring this up because I have so many male readers who will feel squeamish, but I'll try to use euphemisms, gentlemen, to keep you from fainting), have you seen the ads for the new pills that have the supposedly great side effect of reducing the female cycle down to four episodes a year? Does anyone for a moment believe that will not turn out to be extremely bad for women's health over the long term? You are messing with hormones, people. That never turns out well. (See story, above). Since the monthly cycle has been proven to be part of the body's way of cleansing itself, I predict this new pill will be associated with a rise of infections of all kinds (not just STDs) and an increased risk of cervical cancer. I say we'll read that story in 3-5 years.
And I also say there'll be no such thing as women's equality so long as women are encouraged to find their liberation by "curing" themselves of the "disease" of being women.
