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Forget about Duane Reade, you'll be going to Tiffany soon for your contraception.
Women looking for elegant ways to guard against unwanted pregnancies will soon be able to get their birth control through contraceptive jewelry.
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a way to release contraceptive hormones through brackets placed on earbuds, watches and rings.
"This technique could more effectively help some women prevent unwanted pregnancies," lead researcher Mark Prausnitz said in a press release.
The patches are placed on an area of jewelry that is most likely to come in contact with the skin, such as the back of an ear loop or behind the dial of a watch – a technology similar to that used in nicotine patches for smokers trying to quit.
Nicknamed "pharmaceutical jewelry," the researchers said that common forms of contraception such as birth control pills and condoms had a "significant failure rate" due to poor compliance.
Researchers are currently engaged in a battle for the dominance of birth control. Earlier this week, human trials on the male contraceptive pill were able to bring down sperm production.
"We conclude that pharmaceutical jewelry can provide a new method of drug delivery, particularly for contraceptive hormones, which could improve acceptability and increase adherence to drugs," the paper said. published in the Journal of Controlled Release.
But that does not mean that you have to wear your watch 24 hours a day as a person obsessed with his Fitbit. The study found that 16 hours of daily wear was enough to keep contraceptive hormones well above the threshold.
At this stage, transdermal patches have only been tested on randy rats, but the researchers said that earrings were "well tolerated".
Soon in an engagement ring store near you?
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