Maybe this is the kind of thing that will get the birth control industry off its butt to start developing new nonhormonal forms of contraception

More likely, it's the kind of thing that will make more companies drop their birth control research programs for fear of being sued.

Ortho McNeil should have been more forthcoming with their information about the patch. But no birth control method is 100% without risk (all drugs have risks), and expecting BC to be risk free just means that a method that could be useful to many women will probably be removed from the market, just like Norplant was. And the next company that thinks about investing in research into birth control will probably think twice.

Um, not to be wildly paranoid, but what implications does this have for us Nuvaring users?

As a nurse-midwife, I'm very concerned about the risks of the patch, in addition to (still accumulating and not yet conclusive) evidence that it may not be as effective as the pill, even with perfect use, and despite its being easier to use perfectly.

But don't condemn hormonal contraception in general.

First, hormonal contraception saves women's lives, and not just from preventing pregnancy-related mortality (although that's huge)--it also prevents ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer, the former being extremely lethal.

Second, not all forms of hormonal contraception contain estrogen--for instance, the Mirena IUD, Depo-Provera, or the progesterone-only pill, to say nothing of your friend and mine, the safest drug around--Plan B. (I thought Broadsheet loved hormonal contraception!)

Third, that kind of thinking would have had us give up on the Pill when women were taking 100 micrograms of estrogen per day... now it's 25-35 mcg. Perhaps we can use transdermal technology in a safer dose, and alter the progesterone component for greater efficacy.

And as for the NuvaRing user--the implications for you are zero. NuvaRing releases less estrogen into the blood than the patch and even than the pill. Tell all your friends about it.