Posted on 4/17/2019
Contraceptives are very effective, as long as they’re administered on a tight schedule. All too often many women forget or ignore to take the pill, leading to unwanted surprises. Researchers at Georgia Tech, taking into account today’s fashion of wearing unusual jewelry, have developed an earring, necklace, ring, and a wrist watch, each integrating a transdermal patch containing the hormone levonorgestrel.
The jewelry releases the hormone at a steady rate (1.7 μg/cm2·h), at least when tested on pigs, and in rats the approach showed effectiveness at keeping serum levels of the hormone above target levels. Even when the patches were removed for the night, as would be with jewelry when sleeping and such, the technology still maintained the level of levonorgestrel at least at ...