The transdermal contraceptive patch, after its arrival in the year 2002, soon turned out to become one among the most popular birth controlling options in the US alone. Like OCs (Combination Oral Contraceptives), the contraceptive patch is very effective and quickly reversible. The patch was actually designed for mimicking the hormonal reaction of a 35 ?g OC and arrives with numbers of same merits and demerits. It is assumed that the patch will acquire many same contraceptive as well as non contraceptive advantages allied with OCs.

The best thing about the patch is the fact that it’s once a week administration and indeed it’s the main reason why many people usually prefer to go with this option. Of course, there are also a couple of side effects arriving with this treatment option. And when it comes to its most frequent side effects, some of them include nausea, headaches, breast discomfort, and application site reaction.

The contraceptive patch includes 0.75 mg of ethinyl estradiol (EE) and 6 mg of norelgestromin, and was actually designed in order to release 150 ?g norelgestromin and 20 ?g EE to the blood stream via the skin at the gap of every 24 hours. For your kind information, Norelgestromin is a primary active metabolite generated following the oral administration of the norgestimate.

Following the application, EE and norelgestromin soon appear in circulation and arrive at steady state levels just within 48 hours. Much to your surprise, these levels can be higher or lower than therapeutic reference ranges that are developed for OrthoCyclen (25–75 pg/mL and 0.6–1.2 ng/mL, respectively).

Moreover, therapeutic levels of EE and norelgestromin are managed for the seven days of the routine patch wear and during two additional days of the extended wear. When it comes to the half life of EE and norelgestromin, it is 17 hours and 28 hours respectively.

Transdermally administered norelgestromin doesn’t overturn the stimulatory affect of the EE on SHBG (Sex Hormone Binding Globulin), which results in significant increment in SHBG following patch administration as well as some other kind of hepatic proteins.