Free
E-newsletter
Subscribe to Housecall
Our weekly general interest
e-newsletter keeps you up to date
on a wide variety of health topics.
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffOrtho Evra is a contraceptive patch for women that contains the hormones estrogen and progestin. To use Ortho Evra, you apply the small patch to your skin once a week for three weeks. On the fourth week, you don't use a patch — which allows menstruation to occur.
Ortho Evra works similarly to combination birth control pills. Ortho Evra prevents pregnancy by releasing hormones into your bloodstream that suppress ovulation, keeping your ovaries from releasing an egg. Ortho Evra also thickens cervical mucus to keep sperm from reaching the egg.
Ortho Evra is the only contraceptive patch that's approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the U.S. To use Ortho Evra, you'll need a prescription from your health care provider.
Ortho Evra doesn't offer protection from sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
- Birth control methods fact sheet. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. http://www.womenshealth.gov/publications/our-publications/fact-sheet/birth-control-methods.cfm. Accessed Nov. 9, 2012.
- Ortho Evra (prescribing information). Raritan, N.J.: Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc.; 2012. http://www.orthoevra.com/fullprescribeinfo.html. Accessed Nov. 14, 2012.
- Zieman M. Overview of contraception. http://www.uptodate.com/home/. Accessed Nov. 9, 2012.
- Hatcher RA, et al. Contraceptive Technology. 20th ed. New York, N.Y.: Ardent Media; 2011:343.
- Burkman RT. Transdermal contraceptive patch. http://www.uptodate.com/index. Accessed Nov. 14, 2012.
- Dore DD, et al. Extended case-control study results on thromboembolic outcomes among transdermal contraceptive users. Contraception. 2010;81:408.
Find Mayo Clinic on