Patching things up

Dawn Eden sent me this tip on teenwire’s latest bit of propaganda concerning hawking the patch to teens.

They start off with highly scientific reasons for using the patch.

Supermodel Naomi Campbell wore it. So did players on Norway’s Olympic beach volleyball team. Millions of women buy it every year. But this hot item isn’t a bit of bling or a cute bikini. It’s the birth control patch — a highly effective way to reduce the risk of pregnancy.

Yes supermodels and Nordic volleyball players use it – defeat that argument.

Is the patch safe?

Yes. Despite alarming stories from some news outlets, the patch has been shown to be as safe as other combined hormone methods when used as prescribed, and that is very safe.

Yes you can always believe the person who is selling you the product that it is safe. From Corvair’s to contraceptives – no worries. We don’t need to mention what generated those alarming news stories or to go into any details. Move along to the next question in the FAQ because this is where we sell it to you.

How can I get the patch?

Although in some states it is possible to get a prescription online, women usually have to visit a health care provider in order to get a prescription for the patch and other forms of hormonal birth control. You can schedule an appointment to get the patch at your local Planned Parenthood health center by calling 1-800-230-PLAN.

Would anybody reading Teenwire ever ask such a question. It is like standing in a supermarket and wondering where you might buy food. Teenwire has one purpose and one purpose only. Not to inform but to deform. To market their products whether it is abortion or contraceptives. Promoting promiscuous sex is just a necessary means to an end to get you into one of their clinics stores. Sexual license is only a marketing tie in.

Now of course those "alarming" news stories were based on a report by a fringe pro-life group called the Food and Drug Administration. Well okay the FDA isn’t a fringe pro-life group, but there must be some reason to so easily dismiss them when they warned users of the popular Ortho Evra birth control patch that they are being exposed to more hormones, and are therefore at higher risk of blood clots and other serious side effects, than previously disclosed. The simple reason is that facts get into the way of sales.

Now contrast what Teenwire aka Planned Parenthood said that "the patch has been shown to be as safe as other combined hormone methods" with information from this story.

Although most birth control pills and the patch have the same amount of estrogen, hormones from patches go directly into the bloodstream while pills are swallowed and digested first. The result is that women using the patch have much higher levels of estrogen in their bodies.

Thursday’s warning comes four months after The Associated Press reported that patch users die and suffer blood clots at a rate three times higher than women taking the pill.

The paragraph in Teenwire’s article on safety unsurprisingly was the shortest one in their featured article. Now they did mention some side effects:

• Bleeding between periods
• Breast tenderness
• Changes in mood
• Headache
• Nausea — rarely, vomiting
• Weight gain or loss

I guess blood clots and death aren’t side effects. Though maybe death comes under changes in mood or weight loss.