DepoShot - Ladies

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  • JasonsSoulMate
    JasonsSoulMate Posts: 115 Member
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    I personally hate depo... it's a 30kg weight gain in a needle!!
  • dakotababy
    dakotababy Posts: 2,406 Member
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    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.
  • andrea198721
    andrea198721 Posts: 173 Member
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    loved not having a period but after a couple of months on the shot I would actually have 2 to 3 migraines a month around the time of my period. I didn't gain any weight but felt bloated all the time. And whenever I went off, my body took a long time to get back on a normal schedule.
  • BelindaDuvessa
    BelindaDuvessa Posts: 1,014 Member
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    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!
  • SunnyAndrsn
    SunnyAndrsn Posts: 369 Member
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    Depo was hell for me. I gained 60 pounds in the year and was very, very depressed. I think it did contribute to a major depressive episode.

    It took years for my period to return after a year on the shot.
  • SunnyAndrsn
    SunnyAndrsn Posts: 369 Member
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    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.
  • flynnfinn
    flynnfinn Posts: 209 Member
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    Depo works well for some women; not so well for others. I've been on Depo for 13 years without a single negative side effect. It's been a miracle drug for me. My periods were horrible; I'll spare everyone the gory details of that. On the other hand I have a friend who can't tolerate Depo at all. The negative side effects she encountered were just too much and she went off of it after the first shot. Instead, her doc put her on an oral form of birth control with a different hormonal mix. She just skips the placebo week and doesn't have a period at all.

    this is my exact story! i've been on depo for a VERY LONG TIME!! no side effects whatsoever. the only time i wasn't on depo was when i went off it to get pregnant. i'd been on depo already for 11+ years then my husband and i decided we'd try. we both thought it would take us a long time to get pregnant but after 60 day off depo, bam! PREGGERS!!

    i returned to depo after i gave birth and remained on it while breastfeeding. i am still on depo and my son is 3. i'll most likely stay on depo for as long as i can or until we decide to have a second child.
  • cm1458
    cm1458 Posts: 742 Member
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    Thanks for all the replies.
    I'm on the shot because I used to have periods that would last anywhere from 15 days to two months EVERY TIME i had my period. I tried 5 different pills over the course of 3 years, none worked, some made it worse. My mom wont let me try the ring, the patch, or anything else.
  • CINDYRN33
    CINDYRN33 Posts: 148 Member
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    I have been on Depo for 14 years and love it. just make sure you are all taking your calcium or it can be very bad news for your bones in the long term.
  • toberdawg
    toberdawg Posts: 90
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    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!
  • joytron
    joytron Posts: 104 Member
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    Listen to your body. As you can see from all the other posts, it works very well for some women and very terribly for others. It sounds to me like your body is telling you No.

    Personally, I was on Depo for about 4.5 years and it had a very negative effect on me both physically and emotionally. The worst is that I was diagnosed with osteopenia (a precursor to osteoporosis) -- and I was only 23! I also lost hair, had severe mood swings, mild paranoia, and, in an unfairly cruel and ironic twist, experienced a severely lowered sex drive. (I was horrified to learn, later, that Depo is sometimes given to male sex offenders as a sort of chemical castration to kill sex drive.) I didn't gain any weight but then I was a heavy smoker at the time. I initially liked not having a period but as other posters have said, it can be freaky not having that monthly reassurance. Particularly when the paranoia and mood swings would hit: I would be convinced I was pregnant but had no way of knowing, short of a pregnancy test, which I wasted a lot of money on. That sort of makes me sound like a nut-job and to be honest it's true; I was not myself when I was on this drug. I was also sleepy for 100% of those 4.5 years.

    I know it works wonderfully for some women, and I will say, it did a stellar job of keeping me pregnancy-free. ;-) But I must admit to being somewhat surprised that this is a drug that is still given to women.
  • redredy9
    redredy9 Posts: 706 Member
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    I went on depo at 15 and was on it for 8 years. I didn't notice any weight gain but I had other side effects. It killed my ummm.... mojo. I didn't realize it was the depo though. As soon as I got off the depo though it was like "HELLO! so THAT is what everyone was getting all excited about!" :blushing:
  • ChiGirl79
    ChiGirl79 Posts: 11
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    Depo works well for some women; not so well for others. I've been on Depo for 13 years without a single negative side effect. It's been a miracle drug for me.

    I agree! I've been on it for almost 14 and the only negative side effect my OBGYN has talked with me about is bone weaking/loss and to make sure I am taking extra calcium to help counter it. Other than that my weight has gone up and down over the years (which is why I'm using MFP) but I don't think that has to do with my birth control, but more to do do with my getting older, my less than active career, diet choices etc.

    What I will say is it's not for everyone, which is why there are so many wonderful options available nowadays. I would talk to your Dr. about what best suits your lifestyle and needs etc.
  • salemnye
    salemnye Posts: 305 Member
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    I've been on it since Jan. 2009. I was about 158 when I went on it then I ballooned up to i 185 (my highest). I'm not that happy with the weight gain. I'm 179 (last time I weighed myself) so the weight gain is the only thing I've noticed with Depo. Well bad acne but I've always had bad acne unfortunately. Oh yes lowered sex drive but that really isn't an issue since I'm single and could care less if I have a bf or not.

    I'm just curious as to if Depo is the reason I'm not losing weight as fast as I had before. From Oct 2008-early Jan 2009 (got the shot) I had lost 17 lbs ((175 was the sw)). Now it seems to take forever to lose just 1 lbs :/

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