Transdermal contraception and quality of life
Authors: Gorbunova O.V. 
Published: November 2024

Analysis of the current demographic situation in Ukraine in recent years indicates the presence of a deep demographic crisis on the background of social and economic problems and the military-political situation. In such conditions, one of the aspects of the country’s effective demographic policy should be the improvement of women’s reproductive health which depends on the abortion rate.In Ukraine the frequency of abortions has decreased significantly in recent years and today it is 4.6 per 1,000 women of fertile age, while the rate of childbirth exceeds the rate of abortions. Such outcome is the result of the effective use of modern family planning methods, including hormonal contraception. The patch which contains norelgestromin and ethinyl estradiol is the only contraceptive in Europe with transdermal hormone administration. With its use it is possible to ensure a constant level of ethinyl estradiol and norelgestromin in a woman’s blood without peaks and troughs by passing the digestive tract.The objective: to compare the impact on the quality of life of women, as well as the effectiveness, safety and convenience of using a patch containing norelgestromin and ethinylestradiol with a combined oral contraceptive in women of reproductive age.Materials and methods. 266 women of reproductive age who needed reliable contraception and used various modern hormonal methods of contraception were followed up through 2022.The women were divided into the following clinical groups: I group (main group; n=133) – healthy women of fertile age who used a transdermal hormonal system containing norelgestromin 6.0 mg, ethinyl estradiol 0.60 mg for the contraception; II group (comparison group; n=133) – healthy women of fertile age who used a combined oral contraceptive (ethinyl estradiol 0.02 mg and drospirenone 3 mg in a 24+4 regimen) for the contraception.Evaluation of efficiency, safety, convenience was carried out according to the Perl index, data from the FSFI questionnaire (Female sexual function index), the SF-36 quality of life scale.Results. The results demonstrated that hormonal patch, which contains norelgestromin and ethinyl estradiol, is a highly effective contraceptive drug and does not affect the parameters of hormonal and non-hormonal homeostasis, and is well tolerated by women.During the study the use of transdermal contraception in women of reproductive age prevented unplanned pregnancy in 100 % of cases. Evaluating the convenience of the contraceptive method on a five-point scale, women who used the hormonal patch have estimated the convenience with an average score of 4.98±0.02 points; in the group of women who used combined oral contraceptives, the result of convenience was significantly lower: the average score was 4.3±0.03 points (p<0.05).The transdermal form of the contraceptive avoids the effect of “first passage” through the liver, as a result, women who used transdermal contraception had 3.5 times less complications of the digestive tract.Conclusions. Hormonal patch containing norelgestromin and ethinylestradiol is a modern, easy-to-use and reliable method of hormonal contraception for women of reproductive age. It allows you to avoid the effect of “first passage” through the liver, complications of the digestive tract and thrombosis.The constant level of ethinyl estradiol and norelgestromin in a woman’s blood, which this patch provides, makes it possible to improve the psycho-emotional state, increase libido and positively affects the quality of life of women of reproductive age.