Question About Depoprovera(brith control injection)

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S I started depoprovera(birth control) injections in november and am about a month and a half from my third shot but I'm still spotting. From the reading I did before I decided to use this method and the discussion I had with the public health nurse before I had my first shot I understood I may still spot between the first and second shots but by after the second shot all bleeding would be halted.

If there are ant woman who are currently or were at one point on depo, how many shots in were you before bleeding stopped alll together?

my friend stopped spotting about 4 months into it. That is all I know. She loved it!

I was on depo for over 10 years. My OB-GYN told me that the bleeding/spotting varies from woman to woman. For some, there will be sporadic break-thru bleeding the entire time they're on depo. For others (like me) it WILL eventually quit. I think I had bleeding/spotting for almost a year before it finally quit. It was really handy when I was a long-haul truck driver--no pit stops just to change a tampon! However, depo has one very serious drawback: it gives you an insatiable craving for carbs! I put on over 80# & ended up developing insulin-resistant diabetes. I quit the shots 3 yrs ago, have lost & kept off almost 50#, & my diabetes is slowly improving. Hope this helps...

Actually depo provera has another "serious drawback" - increased risk of cancer. My ex used it for 7 years and developed cervical cancer. It had to be operated on.

Learn to live with your periods. It's not worth it to poison yourself every several months just to rid of them.

You've never even had a period, who do you think you are?

Chances are your ex got cancer from HPV and/or genetic predispostion. Depo hasn't been around long enough to prove its carcinogenicity, and even though increased levels of estrogen and progesterone have been linked to certain cancers (breast, ovarian), it would be the same risk with taking the pill or any similar method of birth control.

And BTW, the purpose of depo is birth control, not to stop your periods. It's a better option than pills because you have to remember to take a pill everyday, which is easy to forget.

it's not for 'ending periods' it is for birth control.

I gotta say, you have a lot of balls to come into the Woman's Discussion and start being sanctimonious about how we ought to deal with our periods, dude. Back off!

Merle

Forgot to mention, she got osteoporotic effects too.

No, I'm not a woman. That doesn't change the medical reality of what this drug is: more harmful than pills.

If it makes you feel any better (you know it will), feel free to protect your status quo by piling up on the messenger. I take no pleasure on feeding flamewars by intentionally offending people, and I will not continue this exchange. It's your life.

you forget what you said WHILE you were warning about the health affects of the drug.

you said

THAT was the bit that got the flames tossed at you, so don't try to palm it off on us not wanting to know your information about health . You know you were being insensitive and if you didn't then, you do know it now.

Merle

This was my experience on Depo: Following the shot, 18 continuous months of moderate to heavy bleeding. Told my doctor about it, he said a small percentage of women experience more bleeding rather than less, and said a second shot would probably even things out (obviously, it didn't -- I refused to take a third shot since constant bleeding is its very own special brand of birth control!). I gained 20 pounds, had horrible headaches, chest pain, inexplicable fainting spells, chronic fatigue, and then after my initial 18-month period, I would bleed for three weeks on and one week off for the next SIX YEARS. Oh, and I stopped ovulating (I could tell, but my OB/GYN tested me anyway).

However, my two other friends who took it had no adverse side effects other than 5 pounds' weight gain. So you never know. I'm certainly not recommending it when my daughter asks about birth control, though.

Sigh... okay. I'll say this once in order to clear up what appears to be either misunderstanding, or purposeful obtuseness on your part.

The drug DOES reduce (if not eliminate) periods, in addition to birth control.

"Being too forgetful or lazy to take birth control pills daily" seemed like... how do I put it politely... an unbelievable reason to resort to such drastic measures compared to the pills. So yeah, I naturally assumed the PRIMARY reason anyone would resort to this is to get rid of the periods, because birth control pills do not offer this "bonus".

Sure, the word "period" being said by a male sounds insensitive. Sure, you apparently take Depo Provera for the other reasons. Reasons that are far more banal than I thought, considering the risks.

This doesn't change anything I said. Humor me for a moment... replace "Learn to live with your periods" with "Learn to live with your birth control pills".

Does that sound less offensive ? Is it, then, because I used the word "period" ? Oh, grow up.

Since I see an kneejerk pile-up snowballing here, I will not reply to any more replies in this thread. Depo Provera is s**t. Hate the messenger if you must.

I've had three friends use DP and 2 had continuous breakthrough bleeding the entire time they were on it and the third friend was fine.

I considered DP when I was looking at birth control but I just didn't feel comfortable with it. Instead, I went with the NuvaRing and I love it! If you want to know about, let me know.

I had the continuous breakthrough bleeding the whole time and some weight gain too. I ended up having my tubes tied.

Hello from a female,

Discussing periods is no reason to start flame wars. We don't like 'em, but we live with 'em.

Also, to give you another perspective of things: My schedule varies day to day. I do not have the time to take the Pill the same time daily. My work schedule varies and therefore my sleep schedule does, too. Say, one day at 8am I am just waking up, but most other days of the week I'm busy at my job. At around 3pm I may be getting off of work, but on the days I have off I am already at school, in class. Sometimes I work in the evenings, sometimes I don't. Appointments and meetings also vary depending on other people's schedules. A lot of times, the unexpected occurs and I would have to miss taking the Pill.

I would be interested in this shot the OP is talking about. For now, though, I have an implant, which works fine as a birth control method. It's really cool to feel.

sketches

my main reason for taken depo while it hasn't stopped the bleeding but mreless, even if only reduced it to spotting, is for better regularity in my cycle because before I started it my periods, because I hasn't been on any form of birth control for mor than 18 months varied anywhere from about 30-35 or 40 days apart versus when I was on bc befor and on avereage they were four to four and a half weeks apart. As well however it's a financial thing as I'm currently on $800 EI(formerly UI here in canada) a month and in about three monthe I'm down ot just less than $600 a month on disability welfare and through public health the other three major forms: pill, patch and ring are all $30 a month from the sexual health clinic and this is only 25 once every three months.

What Sinsboldly said. When you grow a uterus I'll give a crap what you think. Until then, don't tell us what to do - and don't tell us to stick large amounts of synth estrogen into our bodies.

Not to mention the obvious fact that forgetting to take a pill EVEN ONCE can lead to pregnancy. It's a scary feeling for a young woman not wanting to get pregnant, which the OP obviously has no clue about. I've forgotten to take pills not because I'm lazy, but because I have trouble focusing and remembering things, like many Aspies, which our OP also doesn't seem to consider. And I just love that he posted random "quotes" with no references whatsoever, whose quotes are they, his??

""While it has long been known that Depo-Provera causes bone loss,""-- long been known? It was only introduced in the late 90's!
""Drugs being given to well people""? -- It's not a drug!

And so forth...