DepoShot - Ladies

Ive been on the depo shot for 3 years. I was really moody for the first 3-4 months and then it balanced out. Your hormones go wacky the week that you get it renewed, but other than that (and the occasional breakout) I have had no problems.

It wasn't for me at all. The moodiness was bad enough but when I end up having a light period continuously (for like 3 weeks at a time) for which my dr prescribed Premarin for (more hormones, usually prescribed for menopause), I was out.
I never liked the no period thing. I am paranoid I guess I like the reassurance when I get it.

I don't think that it's worth it! Getting your period only happens once a month and I know it stinks. But losing hair and gaining weight? I would rather deal with my girl problems.

I've been on it for >15 years (except for the break I took to have my son). I love it and haven't had any side effects. To me, it's magic.

My sister on the other hand also complained of weight gain.

it's hit or miss. I say this a s a woman and as a physician.

My daughter was born 15 years ago and I knew I didn't want anymore kids after her, I was 21. First thing I did was the depo shot. It was horrible, had all the side effects you mentioned. I went from 130 lbs to 172 lbs AFTER she was born on the shot and felt horrible, again, 21 years old. Went off the shot, and tried every pill known to man, some did OK, some not. Every time some new BC pill came out promising to be different and great I would switch. Even did the patch for about a year.
When I turned 30 I told my Doctor to give me something non-hormonal, even if we had to do surgery (which she would not because, again I was 30 and only 1 kid she was convinced I would change my mind, NOT). This was after reading all the "bad" stuff, cancer statistics, etc. They are ALL the same. You are putting a chemical based hormone into your body that would otherwise not naturally be there. Therefor there will be negative side effects in some way shape or form from all of them. She suggested the copper T IUD. We did it 6 years ago and I've never looked back. No side effects, no pregnancy, I don't even know its there. I'm replacing mine next year with a new one. And hopefully after that I wont have to worry about BC ever again. I've read where some people say they fall out, however I don't know how, its in your uterus, unless you have a hole the size of Texas, sorry but its true, and my doctor told me she is convinced those people are lying for some reason, there is just no way it can travel from your uterus past your closed cervix and out your hoohaa. To me that's like saying you peed out your kidney. LOL Anyway, I love it, have never felt it and have gone on with my life never worrying about BC for the last 6 years! And the second best part, if you ever decide to get PG again, you go right on back to your DR. she pops it out, feels similar to a PAP. And your good to go, no waiting.

Depo shot is bad news from what I hear. Personally, I take the generic of sesonique. Only 4 short periods a year and none of the crazy weight gain I've heard about that comes with the shot. You will get bigger boobs with sesonique though. XD

Any kind of hormone based birth control turns me into a crazy psycho nut case. 1 week a month of total inconvenience, 2 crabby days, and some cramps are better for me then that! On the other hand I know lots of girls who are actually much more mellow on the hormonal bc, so it's good for them! I am a little jealous. Would love to skip the nastiness. Ah well.

I've been on Depo for 4 years now. No negative side effects to speak of. Zero weight gain. In fact I've lost 42# to date. I love not getting my period.

I've been on depo for over a year. I found that, at first, I had to handle food cravings (or that could have been mental, who knows). I weigh less than when I got my first dose.

Side effect - I get the shot every 3 months. In those 3 months, I'll probably spend 3 weeks spotting, maybe a few days of period. Not where you'd have to wear heavy equipment, but enough that you do not wanna go in for sexy time with someone new.

I've been on the Depo for 16 years and I absolutely love it! No period at all. I had a couple of girlfriends that had bad side effects when I recommended it to them - the extra heavy bleeding and weight gain; but I've not had any. Love not having to worry about having "that time of the month" come around. I started way too young - and good riddance!!

WARNING - kind of "disturbing" material.

I went on depo for 9 months. I found that the longer I stayed on...the worse it got. By the 6th month...i was bleeding every single day. I continued with 1 more shot in hopes it would stop - but it didn't. I bled for about 5 months straight.

The first few months were amazing - i loved it. My acne actually cleared up, lost my period, everything was awesome. As time went on, it got worse and worse.

I did not want to have sex EVER. My drive went to 0...and at one point when my boyfriend was trying to get me going...i went into an anxiety attack. I became very "dry" as well which was incredibly embarrassing for me and my boyfriend. I ended up getting a prescription for estrogen at high levels. The pharmacist was concerned, and even discretly asked me how old I was (22 at the time) and she asked if I knew why my dr. prescribed me a med typically given to 50 year old ladies. She thought it was a mistake.

Along with the terrible, traumatic side effects...i gained weight. A lot of weight. About 60 pounds in 9 months.

So i was bleeding every day, had no sex drive, and gained massive amounts of weight - that is enough of a birth control for me. I didn't even like looking at myself in the mirror - sex was out of the question. We were both miserable and suffered through this.

I went for the copper IUD next - best thing i have ever done for myself....painful, but amazing. 0 size effects after 3 months or so.

Please read reviews on Depo provera. I read them thinking "it won't happen to me"...and at first i thought i was a lucky one...but I'm not, almost everything people had mentioned, i ended up getting sooner or later.

The negatives weren't nearly worth it for me. I was on it for 2-3 years. I got off of it because I realized 2 things.
1. My mood swings were out of control. My husband and I had many many fights over this period of time, most of which were not warranted. We finally decided it was the Shot.
2. At least half of my weight gain during this time was because of the shot. This also affected my sex drive to non-existent.

I stopped it and wasn't actively trying to get pregnant, but not preventing it either. It took a year after stopping the shot before I got pregnant with my little girl last year. And I still hadn't had a period since stopping the shot, so I didn't know I was pregnant until I was at least 16 weeks along. And even though I haven't taken the shot for a couple of years, my periods are still messed up. I hadn't had one since December or January. I managed to get pregnant again this year (after having the Essure procedure done......yeah, another can of worms I don't recommend), but didn't know again with this pregnancy until about 16-18 weeks, because of missed periods. I honestly want my cycle back!

Any kind of hormone based birth control turns me into a crazy psycho nut case. 1 week a month of total inconvenience, 2 crabby days, and some cramps are better for me then that! On the other hand I know lots of girls who are actually much more mellow on the hormonal bc, so it's good for them! I am a little jealous. Would love to skip the nastiness. Ah well.

Yup, that's me too. I'm not a nut case, but an emotion-less zombie. It's weird, and I honestly didn't notice it at first. We were using the pill to time my cycle for fertility treatments and my husband was the one who noticed my odd behavior. Sure enough, several years later when we did IVF and I had do a month one the pill again pre-cycle I turned into the zombie again.

One of the perks of being infertile is that we don't have to worry about birth control.

Depo masde me gain weight (about 30lbs).

The worst part was . . . hair loss. I have thick, wavy hair, the kind that needs almost zero maintenence. I wash it then, that is about it. After a few months on Depo my hair was thin and stringy. I must have lost about half of what I had. Now a few years later my hair is back to its normal level of awesome!