Birth Control Patch Under Fire

- NBC News

03/24/08 - The birth control patch gives millions of women the freedom of not taking a pill every day.

But one Bay Area woman believes that convenience caused her a potentially life-threatening condition and now she's part of a class action lawsuit.

NBC11's Jessica Aguirre looks at the benefits and risks associated with this controversial contraceptive.

Ronda Sloan, of Oakley, says up until recently she had very few health problems.

"It started on a Sunday, I was at Great America and I was having this shortness of breath and this pain in my chest. By Friday, he had me take a CT scan, and that's when they found the blood clot in my lung," Sloan said.

Sloan believes the birth control patch Ortho Evra caused that blood clot.

"I didn't have any issues taking the pill, not getting sick or anything like that, and with the patch, it only took me three months to make me sick," Sloan said.

And now she's one of thousands of American women suing Johnson and Johnson, the makers of Ortho Evra.

"They were given the patch. They were given the patch for convenience sake, and they weren't told that it actually increases their risk for developing blood clots." Attorney Shawn Khorammi said.

The company says risks for Ortho Evra are spelled out on the label and that patients should make sure to read it. That label was recently updated after a new study found some women are twice as likely to develop blood clots from the patch rather than the pill.

"Your risk is actually elevated compared to the pill. Now that's a big price to pay -- to suffer a stroke, to suffer a pulmonary embolism, to have the DVT -- simply for convenience," Khorrami said.

"I think the most important thing is the absolute risk is still incredibly tiny," Obstetrician and gynecologist Ricki Pollycove said.

And those tiny risks are worth taking for the vast majority of women, according to Dr. Pollycove.

"I've never taken a patient off of Ortho Evra. I've had one patient in 27 years of practice who had a pulmonary embolism on a birth control pill," Pollycove said.

For Ronda Sloan, however, she believes that risk almost cost her life.

But she doesn't blame the doctor who prescribed her the patch. She holds Johnson and Johnson responsible.

"They need to take more care about a human life, because I could have lost a life and my kids couldn't have a mother today," Sloan said.

And now she wants to get the word out to other women, especially teenagers like her 14-year-old daughter.

"When she has to think about taking it later I'm just scared for her to take anything, because I don't know what's going to happen to her," Sloan said.

We contacted the company that makes Ortho Evra. They say they do not comment on specific cases but stand by their product. They want to make sure people speak to their doctors and make sure they understand the label.

No Ortho Evra cases have gone to verdict but several have been settled. Ronda Sloan says her attorneys expect her case to be settled sometime this year.