Questions About Side Effects of Stopping Contraceptive Injections
ABC News has an interesting article up on the withdrawal symptoms some women are reporting after stopping Depo-Provera (medroxyprogesterone acetate), an quarterly injectable progesterone-only contraceptive method.
An internet search on Depo withdrawal turns up multiple online postings, suggesting that some women are concerned about or report experiencing a number of symptoms, including nausea, breast tenderness and fatigue.
As the piece indicates, there is not currently a lot of understanding of these withdrawal symptoms; a quick search of the medical literature doesn’t turn up much on the topic. One woman in the article reported that her physicians “shrugged their shoulders” in response to her complaints, and there is uncertainty as to whether cessation of the drug itself causes the symptoms in some women, or if perhaps the drug had been masking some symptoms that return once the injections are stopped.
A physician interviewed for the article used one of my least favorite analogies – comparing women’s bodies to a car to be worked on. Dr. Louis Weinstein, head of obstetrics and gynecology at Philadelphia’s Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, said: “It’s like you don’t know why your car won’t start. Most of [the symptoms] have nothing to do with Depo-Provera. There may be a lot of other things going and to blame that on Depo-Provera is just not fair. We don’t know.”
While existing labeling for the drug does not address potential withdrawal symptoms, it does include (in addition to other side effects) a boxed warning on potential adverse effects on bone mineral density:
Women who use Depo-Provera Contraceptive Injection may lose significant bone mineral density. Bone loss is greater with increasing duration of use and may not be completely reversible. It is unknown if use of Depo-Provera Contraceptive Injection during adolescence or early adulthood, a critical period of bone accretion, will reduce peak bone mass and increase the risk for osteoporotic fracture in later life. Depo-Provera Contraceptive Injection should be used as a long-term birth control method (e.g. longer than 2 years) only if other birth control methods are inadequate.
Have you taken Depo and then stopped? If you have, please let us know your experience in the comments.
Subscribe to this blog's feed
November 3, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Withdrawal symptoms can be bad from this.
November 3, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Thinking back to when I stopped having the injections, I did feel a little jittery, but I cannot remember any other withdrawal-like symptoms.
November 4, 2009 at 9:45 pm
I had a good friend who stopped and she complained about nausea and jitters (like Jasmine).
November 17, 2009 at 3:28 pm
i have a fiend that has been using the injection for about 6 years. just stopped using it in june 2009 but since then she has been having lots of pain in both breast.
November 24, 2009 at 8:57 am
I stopped the Depo injection 9 weeks ago (after 3 years) and have been suffering from nausea for about a week now. I was also on the injection for 8 years previously and stopped to have a baby. I conceived almost immediately, but suffered from terrible morning sickness. I am beginning to wonder if that sickness was a result of stopping the injection as opposed to being pregnant.
November 30, 2009 at 10:00 am
i was on the depo provera for almost 4 years and got off and since than i have been experincing migraines really bad and breast tenderness and i have been off of it for 2 months.
December 31, 2009 at 5:19 pm
I recently stopped taking the Depo injection after seven years. I am a very happy person, however I have been feeling depressed and tired. I am wondering if anyone else has had this experience. When I first started the shot, my periods immediately stopped. I was due for a shot four weeks ago and have already had a period! I am not upset about this – I am glad to have a period, but the feeling of being emotionally and physically depressed is difficult to deal with. I hope that it passes soon.
January 2, 2010 at 12:52 am
I’m a teenager; I was on the shot for about two years, and I stopped about 4 months ago. Since then I have had awful anger flare-ups and mood swings to the point where my symptoms seem to resemble bi-polar disorder. My family and I have noticed that I never acted like that until I was no longer taking the shot. We came to the idea that with taking, and then stopping, the shot, hormones are completely out of whack, and it could cause serious changes in moods; including what I have been experiencing.
January 4, 2010 at 12:30 pm
I used Depo-Provera for almost three years. For months after my last injection I experienced SEVERE side effects including extreme breast tenderness and swelling, migraine headaches, weight gain of 20 lbs, constant neck and low back aches, moodiness, nausea, and a general feeling of not recognizing my own body. My period did not return until almost seven months after my last injection. I had no idea that these side effects had anything to do with my discontinued use of Depo until I found forums online with women experiencing many of the same symptoms. I am only just now, almost 8 months later feeling any kind of relief.
January 27, 2010 at 7:03 pm
I was on the Depo shot for only 6 months. I experienced a severe loss in my sex drive and just felt really blah. Whats the point of being on birthcontrol if your not having sex??? I decided to stop taking the injections and for the past 2 1/2 months I have had a peroid for 2 weeks then off for 2 weeks. I’m starting to get some of my sex drive back but cant wait til i am “normal” again!
February 2, 2010 at 7:25 pm
i’ve been on the depo for 5 yrs and came off for about 5 months now and me and my hubby would like to have a baby but no period has returned yet,any one has suggestions on how to jump start my period again pls post.thanks
February 7, 2010 at 8:47 pm
I was on the depo shot for a little over a year and have been off of it for a month. I have been experiencing extreme breast tenderness including my nipples and lately iv been really nauseous. Not only that but I feel very moody as well, anything can make me angry to the point where i want to cry. I feel llike i have no control over my body. I took a pregnancy test yesterday and it said negative, but i am still concerned. Doctors should notify us of these possible after effects. They are horrible.
February 12, 2010 at 7:52 pm
Ok, I was on it for about 9 years with a few months break here and there. I’ve been off it now for 5 months and I have severe anxiety over things that normally wouldn’t be scary and I’m very very depressed for no reason. I feel like there’s no point to life anymore. My boobs hurt and I have no monthly visitor. I was really thinking I was schizophrenic until I googled Depo Withdrawls…If anyone has felt these things and then eventually felt better, please tell me because I can deal with it if I know there is an end in sight. Thanks! And any questions just message me on myspace. Click on my name to go to it
February 15, 2010 at 12:59 pm
i came off the injection 7 months to try for baby and have not had any joy, my periods still havnt returned and have just had blood tests cause the nurse thinks the injection has sum how messed up my cycle and i am not producing oestrogen due to the deppo, my sex drive has only just returened and i have put on alot of weight, glad now to see the back of the deppo
March 6, 2010 at 5:38 am
just replying to a few things, as my wife was on depo for 7 years and now off because her age nearing 40 and as she was on it for so long might cause oestriposis ( if spelt right) plus we want more, but since being off depo her periods are back and lost a bit of weight, sex is the same but the last 3 months she has gone a bit wierd, asking if i love her, if she has done something wrong? ….where as there is no need to ask these questions.
But brave as i was tonight i tried getting answers, reply was….anxiety, does not want to go out, crying all the time.
when our life is great, ok i went through depression a long time ago and with my work i can see signs, and obviously the signs are there with my wife, i thought it might be the change ( as you ladies call it ) but i checked it up and no effects like she has.
Thinks i am blanking her out all the time, ( NOT ) she sits in another room when me and daughter are watching tv? ……ask her to come in and says be there in 5 mins……..this is after being off depo for 3 months….grrrr as a husband it is worrying as my wife has changed, as i was in depression at a stage in my life i can see she is going through the stage, luckily i can se the signs that no-one sees outside the house, it is a bad thing.
doctors give you tabs, make you brainwashed, and addicted..i took 2 and still got them and gave 2 to the wife to chill, in bed and hope be better when wake up, as this injection does not say what it effects….i.e
after taking it………………as a husband who loves his wife appreciate you lot for the site to show concern
March 6, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Well I took the injection twice and stopped it as I had no sex drive, my hair did not grow and I gained weight. Istopped in the May and did not menstruate until the December and this was accompanied by awful migraines. I have felt depressed and moody and I can relate to Paul’s wife and her symptoms. I believe the hormones are up and down causing all sorts of depressed symptoms. I have suffered depression before and I am not terribly depressed (yet) but feel myself slipping and am exercising, doing all sorts to keep myself ‘up’…. I feel like my husband is treating me differently but I can also rationalise it and see that it is probably my stuff not his…
I think the injection should be banned…
March 10, 2010 at 3:18 pm
I also have had really bad experiences with the depo injection. I started taking depo, not for contreceptive purposes but to combat pmt and the moods I felt at this time of the month. My doctor told me that if my periods stopped so too would the hormonal imbalance that caused the moods. My moods did level out and I no longer had sore breasts, stomach pains or periods. This all seemed great until I started to gain weight. I went from a size 10 to 14. I excersise vertually every day and have joined a slimming club but weight loss is very slow, despite sticking rigidly to the diet. I also noticed that my hair stopped growing. Again this is a plus when its leg hair etc. Since stopping depot in Sept 2009 I still have had no sign of a period and my weight is still coming of very slowly, half pound per week.
I am annoyed that I was not told about the damage that could be caused to my bones espfecially as I was 40 when first starting the depo. The fat that came on my body was around my stomach and back. Has anyone else suffered from this problem and does the weight come off eventually? I actually wondered if the injections had made my body believe it was going through the menopause as it stopped my periods. I would love some answers.
March 18, 2010 at 8:30 am
I just stopped about a month ago after taking the depo shot for a year and a half while being on it i completely lost my period and went from a size 9 to 17 and no matter what i did i couldn’t lose weight now i have had headaches,cramps, nausea,lower back pain,the week after my missed shot i had a very light period and the blood was brown not red or pink but i have lost 13 pounds since i’ve been off and like some others i didn’t know about the risks i recently found that if you have a history of depression you should not be on it and i’ve been through that well i got it from my mom and her from her dad its weird i dont think depo should b an option
March 24, 2010 at 9:17 am
i have been on the depo injection on and off for 10 years, i was on it constant for 6 years and stopped and my period came back about a month later but lasted for 3 weeks so i went straight back on the injection so my period would stop. it did and i was on it again for about a year and a half and came off it 1 year ago. since then i have still had no periods, and have put on 14 lbs in this last year (i put weight on when on the injection but not as quickly as that). i feel bloated, tired, have mood swings and recently have sore breasts, headache, nausea and dull tummy ache constantly. am really not sure what to do now
April 9, 2010 at 12:23 am
I am 17 and was on depo for a year and a half because my parents forced it upon me I have been off it for almost 2 months and the weight I gained while on it (23 pounds) has remained there I walk 2 miles almost everyday! I have a boyfriend of 2 years and he points out how I have changed emotionally and I seem depressed I have a crippling mirgraine for a week now and my calfs are “twitchy” upon telling my doctor she said hmmm yeah that’ll happen why didn’t she tell me that before! Further more me and my boyfriend (as hard as this is to believe to most) don’t have sex yet I have pregnacy symptoms. Me and him DO NOT have sex because of the risks involved and our faith is very strong so how do I feel this way?
April 11, 2010 at 6:41 am
Im sure what im experiencing is withdrawal from depo provera, I had been on it for 1yr and decided to give my body a rest as Ive done on and off over last ten years of using this drug and have never had any withdrawl symptoms before, I was due for my shot feb 1st 2010 and didnt have it, nine days later I had problems getting to sleep and staying asleep and I started to have bad continuous cramping in pelvic area felt like someone squeezing hell out of my uterus!, 5 days later sore nipples and more cramping that didnt stop with lower back pain, became sensitive to food smells and almost heave from time to time thought I was pregnant but wasn’t,
All these symptoms have contiued but they took a turn for the worst about 25th march when I started to lose my appetite and found myself feeling very nervous to the point of feeling a bit panicky and have become very insecure especially in my relationship, it escalated last friday after such little sleep I couldnt even go to work as I was so tired and felt terribly depressed, anxious and insecure, so i went to see doctor and she did not feel that they were withdrawal symptoms from depo since I had just finished my first period after coming off depo as she believed it would be out of my system by now, she said I have sleep deprivation anxiety and that its a number of things that brings her to that conclusion such as my having noisy neighbors resulting in lack of sleep and long days at work and relationship problems.
After reading forums after forums on the subject in the first 2wks of withdrawal symptoms from this evil drug, I was convinced that this is what i was experiencing and couldnt stand it any longer and stupidly I demanded the doctor to put me back on it which she did that day all because I had read in a forum that a women who couldnt handle it went back on it and the problems stopped and she felt back to normal, however my doctor was adamant she was right and prescribed me Lorazipam for anxiety and sleeping tablets, I had been trying natural methods but couldn’t wait for herbal stuff to work, however I am using L-Theanine 150mg it is good for panic attacks and is non drowsy and works within 30mins I thought it wasnt working for me but I wasnt taking the correct dose for the level of anxiety i was suffering so I got my first noticeable level of relief after correcting the dose.
I have been taking doctors meds for 3days and anxiety has settled and more bearable but depression hasn’t lifted yet, Can anyone tell me if it would have been better for me to switch immediately to the pill when I came off depo and if so why? Im so desperate for answers so please can anyone help, I dont want to have next shot if I can transfer to something else that will have far less withdrawal symptoms.
If anyone can please help me with sound advice please email my address is: lhill@orcon.net.nz
July 12, 2010 at 7:34 am
I was on the injection for 6 months only. My sex drive disappeared while on it and I had skin break outs while my body adjusted. I also picked up weight and this was why I stopped it. I had my period which was when I was due for my next shot (which I didn\’t go for) I then had a week of horrible moods, tiredness and general apathy. And then came on again. And then another week of listlessness and have come on AGAIN a week later. At least my mood is improving slowly, but I\’m hoping that my periods stop at some stage!