You mentioned that one other pill you took also made you feel like like you had the flu? Was it by any chance another ortho product (ortho tri cyclen lo, orthro tri cyclen, ortho cyclen or one of their many generics?) These two products have the same ingredients as the patch, just an active form of the progestin (since it isn't digested like a pill would be), so they might have had the same ill-feeling side effects as the ortho evra patch. If you didn't use one of these before or don't know, I would avoid them for the same reason that they are so similar.
Everyone reacts differently to different pills so picking one thats good for you is just trial and error. If you liked the convience of ortho evra (not taking it every day) you might want to try the nuva ring. It has a similar progestin to mircette/kariva. You insert it vaginally and leave it there for 3 weeks, then remove it for 7 days for the "hormone-free week" It is a low dose formulation so it would be good for older women/smokers.
Other low dose options include--
monophasic:
Alesse (aviane, levlite, lessina, lutera)
Loestrin 1/20(microgestin 1/20, junel 1/20) or loestrin 24 FE
Yaz
biphasic:
mircette (kariva)
triphasic:
cesia (cyclessa, velivet)
Ortho tri cyclen lo
Linear Mode
