Norethindrone: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Norethindrone is a medicine sold in the U.S. under 5 brand and generic names. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Available as
- Tablet
- Sold as
- 5 products — Micronor, Aygestin and Nor-Qd, and others
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Not in our catalog
- Half-life
- about 8 hours
- What the pharmacy pays
- about $9 for a 30-count supply — not your price
Every norethindrone product we track (5)
Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.
| # | Drug | Rating | Type | Form | Generic? | Pharmacy pays | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 72/100 | Prescription | Tablet | Generic | $9 | View → | |
| 2 | Not yet rated | Prescription | Tablet | Generic | $9 | View → | |
| 3 | Not yet rated | Prescription | Tablet | Generic | $9 | View → | |
| 4 | Not yet rated | Prescription | Tablet | Generic | $9 | View → | |
| 5 | Not yet rated | Prescription | Tablet | Generic | $9 | View → |
Combination products containing norethindrone
A combination is a different drug — different dosing, different warnings. It is listed here so you can find it, not so you can substitute it.
Norethindrone recalls
From the FDA Enforcement database. A recall covers specific lots — not the drug as a whole.
Nortrel (norethindrone and ethinyl estradiol tablets USP) 0.5/35
Discoloration: discolored tablets (shades of blue) mixed in with the white inert remainder tablets.
Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc · Jan 25, 2024
Nortrel 7/7/7 (norethindrone and ethinyl estradiol tablets USP- triphasic…
Discoloration: discolored tablets (shades of blue) mixed in with the white inert remainder tablets.
Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc · Jan 25, 2024
How long norethindrone keeps
No norethindrone label we read sets a separate limit for after opening, but they do specify how it must be stored — and the stability behind any date assumes those conditions.
Norethindrone and breastfeeding
From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.
Full LactMed record for norethindrone: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider insteadThis record contains information specific to oral norethindrone used alone for contraception. Those with an interest in a combination oral contraceptive should consult the record entitled, Contraceptives, Oral, Combined. No information is available on the use of high-dose norethindrone acetate during breastfeeding.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised December 15, 2025. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.
What people report to the FDA about norethindrone
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 8,508 reports naming norethindrone, and the FDA flagged 53% of those reports as serious. The effects reported most often — leaving out reports about overdose, misuse or the condition being treated, which dominate the raw list for common medicines:
- nausea736 reports
- headache732 reports
- fatigue623 reports
- hot flush503 reports
- dizziness434 reports
- abdominal pain413 reports
- diarrhoea401 reports
- arthralgia380 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean norethindrone caused the effect — anyone can file one, and many describe people taking several medicines for several conditions. Crucially there is no denominator: FAERS does not record how many people took the drug, so these counts cannot be turned into “X% of patients” — a bigger number often just means a more widely used or more talked-about drug. Duplicates exist, and publicity drives reporting. For what is actually established, read the FDA label.
Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved September 25, 2026.
How long norethindrone stays in your system
The elimination half-life of norethindrone is about 8 hours. This is the terminal (elimination) half-life, not a distribution phase: the label states "the mean terminal elimination half-life of norethindrone following single dose administration ... is approximately 8 hours," and its single-dose PK table gives t½ = 7.7 ± 0.5 hours (12 healthy women, 0.35 mg, fasting). Norethindrone itself is the active drug, and the label names no active metabolite that outlasts it — it is extensively reduced and then sulfate/glucuronide conjugated, with less than 5% excreted unchanged. Related point for anyone reading a different label: norethindrone ACETATE is a prodrug that is rapidly converted to norethindrone, so norethindrone is the active moiety in those products too. This label does not characterize how the half-life changes in older adults or in kidney or liver impairment — no such pharmacokinetic data is given, so no number can be quoted for those groups (the label does contraindicate use in women with significant liver disease, but that is a safety statement, not a half-life adjustment).
CAMILA (norethindrone) 0.35 mg tablets — DailyMed label, Clinical Pharmacology / Pharmacokinetics ↗Half-life is how long the body takes to clear half a dose. It is not the same as how long a drug test can detect it, and it varies with age, kidney and liver function.
Related calculators
Frequently asked questions
How long does norethindrone stay in your system?
The elimination half-life of norethindrone is about 8 hours — that is how long the body takes to clear half of a dose. This is the terminal (elimination) half-life, not a distribution phase: the label states "the mean terminal elimination half-life of norethindrone following single dose administration ... is approximately 8 hours," and its single-dose PK table gives t½ = 7.7 ± 0.5 hours (12 healthy women, 0.35 mg, fasting). Norethindrone itself is the active drug, and the label names no active metabolite that outlasts it — it is extensively reduced and then sulfate/glucuronide conjugated, with less than 5% excreted unchanged. Related point for anyone reading a different label: norethindrone ACETATE is a prodrug that is rapidly converted to norethindrone, so norethindrone is the active moiety in those products too. This label does not characterize how the half-life changes in older adults or in kidney or liver impairment — no such pharmacokinetic data is given, so no number can be quoted for those groups (the label does contraindicate use in women with significant liver disease, but that is a safety statement, not a half-life adjustment). Half-life is not the same as how long a drug test can detect the drug, and it varies with age, kidney and liver function.
Can you take norethindrone with other medicines?
It depends on the medicine. We check it against the FDA labels rather than guessing: our interaction checker searches each drug's own label for the other and quotes what it says, naming the section it came from. Run norethindrone against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.
What brand names is norethindrone sold under?
We track 5 norethindrone-containing products in the U.S.: Micronor, Aygestin, Nor-Qd, Norlutate and Norlutin. They are the same active ingredient; they differ in form, manufacturer, price and FDA recall record.
What forms does norethindrone come in?
Across the brands we track, norethindrone is currently marketed as tablet, per the FDA's National Drug Code Directory. Each form is dosed differently — follow the label for the exact product you were prescribed.
Is there a generic norethindrone?
We do not currently list a generic-labelled norethindrone product. That does not always mean none exists — it means none appears under a generic name in the FDA data we track. Ask your pharmacist.
Has norethindrone been recalled?
The FDA's Enforcement database lists 2 recall records whose product description mentions norethindrone. The most recent: Nortrel (norethindrone and ethinyl estradiol tablets USP) 0.5/35 (Jan 25, 2024). A recall applies to specific lots, not to the drug as a whole — check the record for the affected lot numbers.
Cite this page
- APA
- pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Norethindrone: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/norethindrone
- MLA
- “Norethindrone: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/norethindrone.
We summarise public FDA and NIH sources — for a clinical claim, cite the primary source we link to as well.
Sources: FDA openFDA drug label, National Drug Code Directory, and Enforcement (recall) database. This page reproduces public FDA data and is not medical advice. Dosing is set by your prescriber.
Read the full FDA label for norethindrone on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.