This method has one major advantage--you reduce your risk of forgetting your birth control and having an unplanned preganancy because you only have to deal with it once a week. This reduced my stress level significantly. However, the patch also had several disadvantages, in my case. #1 It upset my stomach a lot at first #2 Minor weight gain #3 More moodiness than with the pill #4 Significantly reduced libido. All of these symptoms might have been a result of the high estrogen level compared to the pill and the ring. Other small problems included mild skin irritation (it left a red, tender square on my butt for days), a lint border around the patch's border(where the adhesive came out from under the edge) which made it look like I had a dirty square on my behind, a tendency to detach after long term exposure to water (hot tub, beach, etc). I didn't get pregnant; I never spotted; I had no ill health effects; however, the minor problems convinced me to switch to the ring.
