Women trust pharmaceutical companies to protect their health when they choose birth control medications. However, when the Ortho Evra Transdermal Birth Control patch was linked to potentially deadly blood clots, this trust was shattered for nearly one million women across the country.

When Ortho Evra was introduced into the market in 2001, it was hailed as a revolution in birth control that allowed women to manage their fertility without having to rely on a once daily pill or painful injection of hormones. Ortho Evra quickly climbed in popularity, and by 2006 nearly four million women have used the patch at some point.

The Ortho Evra patch is applied directly to the skin of the hips, buttocks, or thigh, where it delivers estrogen over an extended period of time. Estrogen helps prevent ovulation, but the Ortho Evra patch delivers 60% more estrogen than the conventional pill. Heat from the body causes the patch to release a specific amount of the drug, but if transdermal patches have been known to fail and deliver too much of a drug too quickly, often with devastating consequences.

Unfortunately, the Ortho Evra patch suffered from such a defect, and caused a number of women to suffer blood clot-related trauma. Although birth control pills have been known to contribute to the formation of blood clots, studies show that Ortho Evra triples the rates of these potentially fatal medical emergencies.

The first fatal incident that could be directly attributed to the patch was a student in New York who collapsed on a subway station in 2005. Tests revealed a blood clot in her leg migrated into her lung, and likely caused a pulmonary embolism. Subsequent autopsies determined that the fatal clot was caused by the Ortho Evra Patch. Ortho Evra is frequently marketed as an equally safe alternative to the daily birth control pill, but more convenient as it only needs to be applied once a week.

By the time the FDA discovered the dangers of the Ortho Evra Transdermal Birth Control Patch it had allegedly destroyed the lives of 17 women between 17 and 30 that suffered fatal heart attacks, blood clots and strokes.

Lawyers representing the women injured or killed by the patch have pressed a dozen lawsuits against Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, a subsidiary company of Johnson & Johnson. Ortho-McNeil has settled these cases for millions of dollars, and as of April 9, 2006, there are more that 100 more lawsuits still pending.

To learn more about Ortho Evra birth control patch side effects and hiring an Ortho Evra lawyer, please visit our website at http://www.resource4orthoevrainfo.com/ This article may be freely reprinted as long as this resource box is included and all links stay intact as hyperlinks.