The birth control ‘patch’ resembles a square shaped band-aid. It is a contraceptive that you wear on your skin. It can be worn on the buttocks, abdomen, upper arm or upper torso.
The patch works by the slow release of estrogen and progestin hormones directly through the skin. You will wear the patch for three weeks, applying a new patch each week, and then you will leave it off for one week.
Common Birth Control Patch Side Effects
The most common birth control patch side effects are skin irritation are the application site, headache, nausea, menstrual cramping, abdominal pain, breast swelling or tenderness and upper respiratory tract infections.
These side effects will generally resolve as your body adjusts to the medication but if they continue you will need to talk to your doctor about them to see if the dose or medication needs to be changed.
Birth Control Patch Side Effects That You Need to Report to Your Doctor
While some side effects may be mildly uncomfortable, others can threaten your health and should be reported to your doctor immediately. Some of these side effects include but are not limited to high blood pressure, lumps in the breast, depression, migraine headaches and vaginal bleeding that is not usual.
Other symptoms that may indicate serious illness include chest pain or heaviness that could indicate a heart attack. Toxic shock syndrome symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, high fever, rash and dizziness or fainting. Blood clot signs and symptoms including changes in vision or sudden loss of vision indicating a possible blood clot in the eye, pain in the calf or leg with swelling of the lower extremity which could be signs of a blood clot in the legs, shortness of breath and chest pain with coughing up blood can be signs of a blood clot in the lung.
If you experience the signs of a stroke which are speech and vision changes, weakness or numbness in an arm or leg and a severe headache you should call the doctor or go to the emergency room immediately. Signs of damage to the liver should be reported to your doctor, they include jaundice (yellowing of the skin or of the whites of the eyes), dark concentrated urine, and pain in the upper right abdomen.
These symptoms require immediate attention and should be reported to the doctor at once, in some cases you should go straight to the emergency room as they can be life threatening.
Clinical Trials to Study Birth Control Side Effects
Normally when a clinical trial for a new medication is done to determine effectiveness or side effects of medication there are two groups of test subjects. One group will be given the actual medication and the other group is given a placebo.
The effects and side effects of each group are documented and compared to determine probable side effects that may be present in the group taking the actual drug and not present in the group that is getting a placebo. This is not possible when testing birth control as it may result in unwanted or unintentional pregnancies. Because a placebo was not used during testing, there is no way to determine if the side effects are actually side effects of the particular drug.
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