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Teaching Mathematics and its Applications Advance Access published online on April 22, 2008
Teaching Mathematics and its Applications, doi:10.1093/teamat/hrn004
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Investigating birth control: comparing oestrogen levels in patients using the Ortho Evra® patch versus the Ortho-Cyclen® pill

Theresa A. Laurent

Address for correspondence: Theresa A. Laurent, St Louis College of Pharmacy, 4588 Parkview Place, St Louis, MO 63110, USA. Tel: +314-446-8478, Fax: +314-446-8304, E-mail: tlaurent{at}stlcop.edu

Submitted August 2007; accepted March 2008

Recent drug studies have investigated the incidence of blood clots among patients using the Ortho Evra® birth control patch. In this article, the author describes an investigation of oestrogen levels in the body resulting from the application of the Ortho Evra® birth control patch versus daily use of Ortho-Cyclen® birth control pills. Prescribing information provided by the manufacturer and mathematical models from pharmacokinetics are used to investigate differences between the two birth control methods. Given the pharmacokinetic information on these drugs, applied calculus students are asked to recalculate the size of the patch so that the areas under the curves are equal. Their findings are compared to studies reported in the prescribing information produced by Ortho McNeil Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturers of these products.

Theresa Laurent is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the St Louis College of Pharmacy and has taught there since 2001. She is interested in mathematical modeling of health related topics and is currently pursuing a PhD in Mathematics Education at the University of Missouri—St Louis.


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