Scientists develop new form of birth control placed in EARRINGS

Scientists develop new form of birth control placed in EARRINGS - Daily Mail

Posted: 16 Mar 2019 12:00 AM PDT

Forget about popping a daily pill. Scientists have developed a new form of birth control – contraceptive earrings.

The clip-on jewellery is infused with synthetic hormones which pass through the skin of the wearer's earlobe and into her bloodstream.

The hormones then act in the same way as those found in the contraceptive Pill – thus preventing pregnancy. The idea is to improve the reliability of contraception, as the earrings eliminate the need to remember to take the Pill daily.

The contraceptive pill (pictured above) is used to prevent pregnancy, however scientists may have developed a new method

Details of the invention by chemists at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US are outlined in the latest edition of the Journal of Controlled Release.

Forgetting to take medication is a significant problem, they wrote, and 'this is especially true for contraceptive hormones, which provide almost perfect prevention of pregnancy if used correctly, but have significant failure rates in typical use'.

While the Pill has a failure rate of about 0.3 per cent if taken properly, the figure can jump to as high as nine per cent in real-world conditions.

They added: 'To increase medication acceptability and adherence, we introduce pharmaceutical jewellery, in which a transdermal patch is incorporated into jewellery worn on skin.'

Tests showed the earrings to be highly effective.