Hi, I used the pacth for 3 years. Before you continue taking the patch, do you know about the recent findings that the patch may distribute a higher amount of hormones into the blood stream and may have led to and increased number of death from blood clots and strokes in girls in their 20's? If you don't know about this you can read some recent posts on this forum or look it up on the net. You should know that it is believed that the patch has greater health risk than birth control pills. With that said, read your packet thoroughly and you will see that it says if the patch should fall off you should try to reattach it unless it has come into contact with any clothing. If it has come into contact with clothing you must throw it out and attach a new one. Still change the patch on the same day you would normally. With that said, you should probably be fine, (but use a back-up method) unless you put your fingers allover the sticky side of the patch when you re-applied it to another location. With that said, after taking it for 3 years there were multple occasions where it either came off or partially came off and attached itself to clothing and I did not change it but rather tried to re-apply it. I was fine but I also used condoms as a back up during this time.

Just a personal note about the patch. I used it for 3 years and most of the time it was great, I loved the fact that I didnt have to remember a pill daily. But, within the last 6 months i've experienced some problems. I was having migraines all the time and my Dr. Advised me to take 3 cycles of patched back to back without taking the week off or having a period. The build up of hormones was so great from taking them for 9 weeks straight that when I had my period I went into "hormone withdrawal" and experienced menopause-like symptoms such as hot flashes, dizziness, heavy bleeding and severe cramping. In addition I have had high blood pressure for these past 6 months. I am 24 years old and at a healthy weight. I have taken birth control pills for years before the patch and never had high blood pressure untill now, and I even used the pills back to back like I didn with the patch and did not experience the hormone withdrawl symptoms. Personally, I am excited that I am switching to a lower dose birth control pill and I hope that my blood pressure will return to normal soon.

I just wanted to tell you my story, obviously you will make your own decisions. Good luck :wink: