# Anyone ever been a guinea pig for hire?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-a-guinea-pig-for-hire/225202>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 19, 2004, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-a-guinea-pig-for-hire/225202 "2004-01-19T15:40:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![phraser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a88e4f/32.png) [@phraser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phraser)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-a-guinea-pig-for-hire/225202/21 "2004-01-22T10:58:15Z")

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I was in a long term study (about 6 months), which was testing a contraceptive patch (this was back when I was still a girl, and having the extra oestrogens floating around was part of what convinced me that i really didn’t want to be one any longer than was necessary).

I answered an ad in the student paper at my university.  
Basically, I wore a hormone patch for three weeks of the month. I got blood taken four times a week for the six months, had to fill out a mood diary, get weighed and blood pressure weekly, and a bunch of other peripheral stuff like urine tests and pelvic exams :eek:

No, we weren’t testing whether the patches worked to prevent pregnancy! They were just testing to see if effective blood hormone levels were achieved.

I could have left at any time, but I needed the money, so I didn’t. I was unfortunate enough to be allergic to the patch adhesive and so I got nasty boils all over the surrounding skin, some of which caused scarring which is still there.

I got about $2000 for my 6 months effort, and they gave me money for the bus in to the hospital for getting my blood taken.

I’d do it again, although obviously not for a contraceptive patch.

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**Author:** ![Stonebow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Stonebow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stonebow)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-a-guinea-pig-for-hire/225202/22 "2004-01-22T15:12:52Z")

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Am I the only one that thought that this might be a thread about plushies?  
Oh.

Never mind.

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