New Birth Control Patch

First there was the nicotine patch. Now there's a contraceptive patch, and new research shows it is as effective as birth control pills. CBS News Correspondent Russ Mitchell reports.

Developers of the new contraceptive patch say the device is going to revolutionize birth control.

The study on the patch was funded by the parent company of Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, which is calling its invention, Ortho-Evra. The patch is supposed to be changed once a week and uses the same principle as the nicotine patch, only it delivers a daily dose of hormones used for contraception. This study found women were more likely to remember to use it once a week than take the pill every day.

"Given the alternative of having to take birth control pills every day for a month, changing the patch once a week on the same day was not at all a problem for women in this study," says study author Dr. William Koltun of the Medical Center for Women's Clinical Research in San Diego, California.

The study also showed the patch was just as reliable as birth control pills, and produced similar side effects. Some medical experts say no matter how reliable or convenient the patch may become, women may never say goodbye to the pill.

"Americans are very comfortable with using pills for various reasons including birth control. And while they will welcome these new approaches to birth control, I think the pill is always going to be solidly with us," says Dr. Carolyn Westhoff of the New York Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.

Dawn Manroe, a 30-year-old mother of one, used the patch as part of a yearlong study. "I really liked the patch. It was convenient," she says. "I think for some who can't remember to take the pill everyday it is a nice option to have something once a week that they can apply."

The patch still has to be approved by the FDA, but experts say it's possible that doctors could be writing the first prescriptions for the device by this fall.

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