Stick-on patch that may become the new Pill

by JENNY HOPE, Daily Mail

A self-adhesive contraceptive patch is next year expected to trigger the biggest revolution in family planning since the Pill.

The new birth control device, which looks like a smoker's patch, works as well as the Pill by giving virtually 100 per cent protection against unwanted pregnancy.

Research released today said it could also overcome the biggest reason for the Pill failing - women forgetting to take it.

The patch works for a week before it is peeled off and can be worn on the arms, stomach or buttocks.

It slowly releases hormones which, once absorbed through the skin, work in the same way as the Pill.

Women testing the patch could carry on normal daily life, including having baths and swimming but were warned not to apply oils, creams or cosmetics on or around the area where it was placed.

If a patch came off, it could be stuck straight back on. Nearly five per cent of patches in the study had to be replaced after becoming detached.

Researchers in the U.S. and Canada examined nearly 1,500 women at 45 clinics. They were randomly assigned to use the Pill or patches, which contain similar doses and types of hormones, for six months or a year.

Both methods were similarly effective at preventing pregnancies. However, women were less likely to forget to apply a patch than they were to take a Pill every day for three weeks, followed by a contraceptive-free week.

This was despite the fact that side- effects such as breast discomfort and period pains were slightly more common among those with the patches.

Toni Belfield, director of information at the Family Planning Association and author of The Contraceptive Handbook, said the patch would give women another choice of birth control.

'We're expecting the patch to be made available in 2002,' she said. 'It's a very exciting time for women because there will soon be a whole range of new choices.

'Not only will the patch be launched but there will be the vaginal ring and monthly injections, both of which use two types of contraceptive hormones which have benefits over a single hormone method.'

She said the patch offered advantages to women who did not like taking pills or found it hard to remember to take them.

'It's not that women are bad at pill-taking, human beings are,' said Miss Belfield. 'The patch may drop off but it's not a common problem for women using them in hormone replacement therapy.

'One advantage with the patch is that the hormones bypass the liver which may lead to fewer niggly side-effects but it is not see-through so some women may not like it because it's a visible form of birth control.'

The researchers were led by Dr Marie-Claude Audet, at Centre Medical des Halle de Ste-Foy, Quebec, and Dr William Koltun, from the Medical Center for Women's Clinical Research in San Diego, California.

Reporting their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association, they anticipated that the number of unwanted pregnancies may fall if women switched to patches.

But although failure rates were lower, the difference in the number of pregnancies between the two methods was not statistically significant.

However, checks on blood levels of the contraceptive hormones showed that women were using the patch more consistently.

The researchers said: 'The weekly dosing was associated with significantly better compliance than is observed with daily dosing regimens.

'The speculation that the improved compliance will result in lower typical use contraceptive failure rates will need to be confirmed in future studies.'

The Evra Contraceptive Patch, made by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Ortho, will be eventually marketed in the UK by Janssen-Cilag.

The Pill was launched in 1960 and is now used by 100million women worldwide.