Depo Provera?

every woman i've ever known who tried depo hated it. it's (from what i've heard) like playing reproductive russian roulette.

I was on it for quite a long time. the first time, i had no problems at all. The second time i had REALLY painful periods... i couldn't get out of bed they were so bad. So i got off of it, and now, almost a year later, I am having three periods a month, and they are always horribly painful every first day of my period. I can't track when they'll be either, so it's getting REALLY annoying. when going into a doctor, she said the only thing that could really fix it would be to a, wait it out, or b, get back on it.


i'll be waiting it out.

I was on it for most of this year but then I started spot bleeding (which is worse than a period cause you don't know how long the bleeding last and the only advice my doctor gave me to stop it was take some birth control pills to replace the lack of estrogen I had) and it made me really emotional. Plus without having regular periods you can be prone to yeast infections so I stopped using it and switched to the pill. My advice is weight what the risks are and then decide.

I've been on the shot for over 3 years and never had any bad side effects i was aware of. It starts working almost immediately, you don't have to remember to take a pill every day or a patch falling off, and best of all I don't get periods. I had PMDD really bad so no more periods is a miracle.

I was on it years ago (for about 3 years), and didn't have any of the problems mentioned above. I got off though because it is supposedly linked to lower bone density, and mine is already not great... I would have stayed on it otherwise.

Oh yeah, I should tell you that Nuvaring is my choice now, and I highly recommend that you check it out... you don't have to remember it every day, it has no noticeable side effects, and it doesn't get in the way during sex like it seems it might. I even had one guy tell me that it made sex better, because of how it felt when he rubbed against it.

The Ring is awesome. It's the lowest dose of hormones available for birth control, but just as effective because it's position is so close to the reproductive organs. You can also take it out for up to 3 hours at a time (if you wanted to, for sex, though as you said you can keep it in). I was on it for a while but had to switch to a higher dose of hormones for medical reasons. I'm planning on going back on it next month.

I love the fact that i don't get the period because mine were terrible.

Terrible. I was on that stupid shot for 2 years and gained like 30 LBs... fuck... I had to for medical reasons... don't do it if you can help it!

One of my friends ended up gaining a ton of weight on it and developed heart palpitations. She has finally gone off of it, but the weight loss has been slow, and the heart problems are getting better- but very slowly.
I'd look into alternatives if I were you.

Unfortunately it does mess with a lot of people; my year stint on it wasn't too bad though. I switched to depo originally 'cos estrogen pills makes me completely fucking nuts and because I used to take the pill at "bedtime" (which was anywhere from 7pm to 4am).. I'm not a very good pill-taker, haha Only side effect I ever had from depo was annoying spotting: no moodiness, acne, weight gain, etc. My aunt is the Gyno nurse that gave me my shots and the doctors at her practice don't recommend it for more than 18 to 24 months because of, like someone mentioned earlier in the thread, bone density loss that they think is irreversible. Getting off it was the major bitch though.. played the waiting game for a while. I've been on POPs since then, but I'd say if you're considering doing the depo.... think about it for a long, loooooooooong time.

I was on it for two years and it was fine..
but once i stopped taking it..
i didnt get my period again for another 2 years..
my body had stopped producing its own hormones due to the depo and i had to go on hormone therapy to get it back
the hormone therapy made me wanna kill myself.. i was crying at every little ridiculous thing..

Depo can be a great thing, but dont stay on it for too long.. doctors say you should only use it for a year and then take a break and then go back anyways so that your body doesnt do what mine did.. of course they never told me that then...
it also depletes your calcium so you should take supplements, or increase general calcium intake