The Ortho Evra birth control patch sparked no fewer than 9,116 adverse reaction reports to the Food and Drug Administration between April 2002 and September 2003 (just 17 months). Compare that with the six-year period between 1997 and 2003 when the Ortho Cyclen birth control pill generated merely 1,237 such reports—and six times more women were using it.

Given that the FDA only receives adverse reaction reports on between 1% and 10% of the actual events that occur, the injury and death rate for users of the Ortho Evra birth control patch is sure to be far higher than the numbers represented in the FDA database.

Ortho-McNeil (maker of the Ortho Evra birth control patch) and its parent company, Johnson & Johnson, have vigorously denied knowledge of problems with the patch. But documents have surfaced in litigation showing how the company received more than 500 reports of serious problems associated with the Ortho Evra birth control patch between April 2002 and December 2004.

At that time, only 61 adverse reaction reports had been received with respect to all kinds of oral contraceptives. In addition, there were four times as many strokes in women using the Ortho Evra birth control patch compared with women using oral contraceptives even though once again, 300% more women were taking the pill. The evidence also indicates that in medically confirmed cases, the risk of blood clots was 14 times higher with the patch.