Evra is a 20-square-centimetre, thin beige patch that delivers continuous levels of progestin and estrogen, the same ingredients contained in the birth control pill.

"For the busy woman seeking convenience, this is safe and effective," said Dr. Fay Weisberg, an obstetrician/gynecologist at Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre. "Sometimes women find it quite stressful to remember to take a pill every day, so this patch takes that pressure off. You just change it once a week."

In a worldwide clinical trial involving 3,300 women who tried the patch for a year compared to 1,200 women who took the birth control pill, both forms of contraception had a 93 per cent rate of preventing pregnancy.