Norgestimate, sold under the brand names Ortho Tri-Cyclen and Previfem among others, is a progestin medication which is used in birth control pills for women and in menopausal hormone therapy. The medication is available in combination with an estrogen and is not available alone. It is taken by mouth.Side effects of the combination of an estrogen and norgestimate include menstrual irregularities, headaches, nausea, abdominal pain, breast tenderness, mood changes, and others. Norgestimate is a progestin, or a synthetic progestogen, and hence is an agonist of the progesterone receptor, the biological target of progestogens like progesterone. It has very weak androgenic activity and no other important hormonal activity. The medication is a prodrug of norelgestromin and to a lesser extent of levonorgestrel in the body.Norgestimate was patented in 1965 and introduced for medical use, specifically in birth control pills, in 1986. It was introduced for use in menopausal hormone therapy in the United States in 1999. Norgestimate is sometimes referred to as a "third-generation" progestin. It is marketed in birth control pills widely throughout the world, whereas it is available for use in menopausal hormone therapy only in the United States and Brazil. Norgestimate is available as a generic medication. In 2019, the version with ethinylestradiol was the 70th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 10 million prescriptions. Medical uses
Norgestimate is used in hormonal contraception and in menopausal hormone therapy for the treatment of menopausal symptoms.
Sahara dust is frequently emitted into the Mediterranean atmosphere and transported by the winds sometimes as far north as central Europe and Great Britain.Saharan dust storms have increased approximately 10-fold during the half-century since the 1950s, causing topsoil loss in Niger, Chad, northern Nigeria, and Burkina Faso. In Mauritania there were just two dust storms a year in the early 1960s; there are about 80 a year since 2007, according to English geographer Andrew Goudie, professor at the University of Oxford. Levels of Saharan dust coming off the east coast of Africa in June 2007 were five times those observed in June 2006, and were the highest observed since at least 1999, which may have cooled Atlantic waters enough to slightly reduce hurricane activity in late 2007. Dust storms have also been shown to increase the spread of disease across the globe. Virus spores in the ground are blown into the atmosphere by the storms with the minute particles and interact with urban air pollution.Short-term effects of exposure to desert dust include immediate increased symptoms and worsening of the lung function in individuals with asthma, increased mortality and morbidity from long-transported dust from both Saharan and Asian dust storms suggesting that long-transported dust storm particles adversely affects the circulatory system. Dust pneumonia is the result of large amounts of dust being inhaled.