A 31-year-old woman from Colorado has filed an Ortho Evra lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson, maker of the popular birth control patch. The woman claims that she suffered serious birth control patch side effects as a result of using the Ortho Evra patch, including blood clots in her leg and lungs.

The woman claims that in October 2004, nine months after she began wearing the Ortho Evra patch, she was hospitalized after suffering the blood clots. Because of this Ortho Evra side effect, the woman will never again be able to use hormonal drugs such as birth control or hormone replacement therapy. She is also at an increased risk for complications from the blood clots she suffered in her lungs.

Studies have shown that the Ortho Evra birth control patch causes women to receive a 60% higher dose of estrogen than with birth control pills. Because estrogen is known to cause blood clots, this places women at a significantly higher risk of heart attack, stroke and other birth control patch side effects. Studies have shown that women using the Ortho Evra patch face roughly four times the risk of stroke as birth control pill users.

In her Ortho Evra lawsuit, the woman claims that Johnson & Johnson acted negligently by not informing consumers of the risk of birth control patch side effects associated with the Ortho Evra patch. Evidence uncovered in previous Ortho Evra lawsuits has shown that Johnson & Johnson conducted its own analysis of the Food and Drug Administration’s injury and death data for the Ortho Evra patch and found that it caused an increased risk of birth control patch side effects. Despite these findings, neither Johnson & Johnson nor its subsidiary, Ortho-McNeil, have yet issued an Ortho Evra recall.