Posted on 11/06/2006 6:31:22 PM PST by Lorianne
More than 40 women have filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court against the manufacturer of a popular birth control patch. They are alleging that the patch is causing life-threatening problems and complications and has even resulted in the death of a woman.
In the lawsuit filed against the manufacturer Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson and a San Francisco-based distributor McKesson Corp, the women have alleged that by using the Ortho Eva birth patch they have experienced various health problems including blood clots. A second complaint filed against Ortho-McNeil claims that a 25 year old healthy woman died of severe blood clots in her legs and lungs after she started using Ortho Evra.
Ortho Evra is a birth control patch approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2001 and is one of the fastest growing forms of contraception in the country. It prevents pregnancy by delivering the hormones progesterone and estrogen directly into the bloodstream through the skin.
After a study in September, the FDA had warned that the women using Ortho Evra birth-control patch can face twice the risk of blood clots in their lungs and legs than the women using the contraceptive pills.
The plaintiffs are accusing the company Ortho-McNeil of failing to suitably investigate the product's safety before launching it in the market and of deceiving the users about the severity and acuteness of possible side effects, including blood clots and strokes.
These are not bioidentical hormones. One of the saddest bill of goods that women of my generation have be sold is that birth control is "good for you". I am now spending my 30's trying to undo all of the damage that was done to it from when I was on the pill, because it was "good for me".
Unsurprising. It's not Nice to muck about with the endocrine system.
Logical consequences ping.
If God was a lawyer, there would be warning labels on air and water. Still, man would sue the $hit out of his brother. Color me... unsurprised.
Consequences indeed. I think there are a lot more that we don't know about. Consequences, I mean.
Oh, of course. Maybe someday the human race will assimilate "Don't fix it if it ain't broken."
On the other hand, not all lawsuits are frivolous.
Hormonal contraception intent is to break a woman's functioning body. Of course there were going to be serious consequences.
Good luck in your recovery. You are young enough that perhaps it can be reversed. (Although I'm not a doctor so don't quote me on anything.)
I came of age in the 70s, an era of chemical experimentation gone wild. Nevertheless I resisted the whole drug scene and hormone experimentation because I had some visceral suspicion about hormone therapies. I don't doubt that they are lifesavers in the right circumstances, I have just avoided their use for anything so far. I'm healthy and lucky and would always advise younger women to stay away from such therapies that weren't absolutely necessary.
I am concerned that many athletes are going to have nasty surprises sometime in the future. I also suspect the same thing will happen to Botox users and others who play with chemicals in their bodies to stop or erase natural hormonal and aging cycles (as opposed to screwed up or missing ones). Messing with Mother Nature rarely works.
Warnings about these side effects have been around for ages. There's no way these women couldn't and shouldn't have known of the risks. If they chose to go ahead with this anyway because they valued their sexual freedom more than they valued their health, then they should take the consequences of their poor decision making and not expect a handout for their stupidity.
health ping
+
If you want on (or off) this Catholic and Pro-Life ping list, let me know!
I agree, somewhat. However Planned Parenthood encourages young girls to use them.
If a patch does this much damage, what kind of damage must RU whatever it is, do? Not to mention abortion!
There is no medication that has no side effects. Anytime you take any medication a risk benefit ratio must be done, be it the patch, the pill, or other form of birth control. Ortho should have no liability unless they covered up data on the risks in the clinical trials as did Merck with Vioxx. Even with the best clinical trials not all the severe consequences of a medicine are uncovered, until the drug is released to the public. If the FDA insisted on absolute safety and all side effects be known, we would have no new drugs available.
Merck did uncover this in the clinical trials but hid the data. Merck was one of the leaders in pharmaceutical research. They deserve every thing that happened to them. They acted in an unethical manner. The hell of it is that Vioxx is a good drug but it should have been marketed with what we call a "Black Box" warning of certain dangerous or fatal side effects.
thanks, bfl
Look how many people are killed by dihydrogen monoxide.
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