It turns out that Evra, the once-a-week "birth control" patch, poses a greater health risk than had been admitted by the drug's manufacturer. In fact, "the January issue of Health Canada’s Canadian Adverse Reaction Newsletter documented 16 cases of blood clots and one heart attack in Evra patch users since its arrival on the Canadian market in 2004. Two of the 17 patients reported to Health Canada died as a result."In a statement that hardly provides much comfort to women who use such products, Janssen-Ortho defended Evra by explaining that "all forms of birth control pose increased risks of serious conditions like blood clots."
“The risk of serious adverse events is small in healthy women, but increases significantly if associated with the presence of other risk factors such as obesity or cigarette smoking,” it said.
Here's the story from the student newspaper of the University of Western Ontario written by Lauren Pelley.
