Help Please Ladies... :/

JoanneS83
JoanneS83 Posts: 1
edited September 27 in Introduce Yourself
Im lookin 4 sum advice from the ladies... I am currently goin t the gym 3 times a week and i eat healthily.. I am on the contraceptive injection, DepoProvera and altho im doin evrythin i can t lose weight i seem t be puttin it on. Ive spoken 2 a doctor who was no help. Its really gettin me down :(.. Has any1 else found weight gain a problem on the Depo and wot wud u advise me t do?? X

Replies

  • teanabean
    teanabean Posts: 168 Member
    Have you had recent labwork done to check your thyroid?
  • Crystalchaos72
    Crystalchaos72 Posts: 531
    I have been on it for a year now. I gained some weight but it was my own poor food choices.. In the last less than 3 mos I have lost all the previously gained weight plus 10lbs.....-36.6 total. As long as you exercise and are COMPLETELY honest with all your tracking and stick to the calories they reccomend you should be able to lose. GOOD LUCK!! You can do it :)
  • crystal10584
    crystal10584 Posts: 334
    I put on like 30 lbs in the 3 years I was on it and couldn't lose for the life of me.
  • SMJohnson27
    SMJohnson27 Posts: 146 Member
    I gained so much weight on the depo shot. I eventually had to go off of it. Which was a difficult decision because I CAN NOT remember to take a pill everyday. But I knew I was just going to keep putting the weight on, if I didn't. I was already 40 pounds heavier in 2 years, and so tired all the time because of the weight. But it still took 8 months to lose anything after I stopped it.
  • HorsesNotZebras
    HorsesNotZebras Posts: 1
    I was on Depo for two years and i found that my main struggle was with portion control and appetite. It won't matter as much how healthy you're eating if you're eating a LOT of it lol...

    Good luck with your journey and try to limit portions!
  • wdmom
    wdmom Posts: 24 Member
    I have heard from some ladies that Depo does make them gain weight. I was convinced that my anti-depressants were making me gain weight. I sure think it's possible for medication to cause weight gain. Since joining MFP, I realized that it was my appetite that was making me gain. I was constantly eating. I was constantly eating large portions of high calorie foods. I have been able to lose more easily than I anticipated.

    Medication changes your body chemistry. So it seems very possible that it is changing your appetite, cravings, metabolism or any number of other body functions. Do some on-line research. Be informed. Then talk to your doctor. And ask for a thyroid test like someone else recommended.

    I use the Nuva Ring for contraception. Its a ring which has hormones in it. You insert it into your vagina and it secretes hormones into your body for 3 weeks. Then you remove it for a week. Then you insert a NEW one for 4 weeks and so on. I had trouble remembering to take the pill. The nuva ring is so easy. I just set a notification on my i-phone or on the calendar to remind me to take it out or put it in. It's just another way of delivering the hormones to your body and is very low dose. It has not interfered with intimacy at all. I definitely recommend it.
  • Aurelina
    Aurelina Posts: 197 Member
    You aren't crazy when you sense Depo increases your appetite!

    There is a drug to help cancer patients GAIN WEIGHT when they have lost their appetite; MAGACE, a version of progesterone. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000539/ Here's some notable bits from the NIH website. "Megestrol suspension is used to treat loss of appetite, malnutrition, and severe weight loss in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). <snip> Megestrol is a man-made version of the human hormone progesterone. <snip> It increases weight gain by increasing appetite." Nifty, heh. MEGACE = APPETITE INCREASE = MAGIC FAT So for some of us Progesterone/Provera = Appetite Increase. You can find glowing reports online about it helping someone's mom gain 10 lbs in a month. Good stuff if you are suffering from cancer.

    How about the black box warning on Depo-Provera http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depo-Provera#Black_box_warning

    I have a hunch that for some of us, enough P in our system blocking our estrogen reception and we end up with symptoms of MS. Raising hand here. What happens when you get MS? For most? Doc prescribes steroids = weight gain. P and steroids increase blood sugar = Magic Fat Dance with no effort at all.

    One easy test to see how you respond to progesterone and if you might be particularly sensitive to it, get a blood glucose monitor and see what your blood sugar levels are on the mornings of the estrogen phase of your cycle and then see what happens during the last two weeks during the progesterone phase of your cycle.

    PERHAPS.... if one is suffering weight gain with a Depo shot (still in the tissues), perhaps a low carb, moderate protein lifestyle would help until you get the progesterone metabolized. Check your blood sugar levels while on Depo. It's one way to look at how it's affecting you and if you are being pushed into insulin resistance.

    There are a lot of websites talking about progesterone fixing everything under the sun, but you won't find much in the way of good documentation on these sites. Some women gain loads of weight during pregnancy when the P is high, and some women do fine and simply glow beautifully. I'm not that gal. A women prone to big insulin resistance-like weight gain during pregnancy would do well to have caution about Depo.
  • lilabette
    lilabette Posts: 21
    Sometimes weight loss while on bc is like an uphill battle....I would suggest upping your cardio to 6x a week, in order to see results without changing your diet....best of luck!
  • jopamom
    jopamom Posts: 11
    Definitely try to get more workouts in. You're probably not burning enough calories in those 3 days. If you like going to the gym, I'd suggest you mix in cardio and weight training, doing cardio one day and strength the next. If you are eating healthy UNPROCESSED foods and staying within your balance of proteins, carbs, and fats then you should lose 1-2 lbs every week.
  • Aurelina
    Aurelina Posts: 197 Member
    Sadly a women sensitive to P might elevate her cortisol levels with too much cardio )-: which is another thing to increase blood sugar levels. )))-: Perhaps the primal approach would help most to get through the process of metabolizing the P out of the tissues. YMMV
  • cmiles23
    cmiles23 Posts: 234 Member
    I had the opposite problem, i held my weight fine while on it but once i was off of it is when i started to gain weight, have your thyroid checked!
  • JunkFoodJane
    JunkFoodJane Posts: 150 Member
    I gained 14 pounds in one cycle. As soon as it wore off I started losing that weight. Will not take it again. Also my doc gave it to me in the hospital, and it hurt my ability to breastfeed. Nursing was excruciating and produced almost nothing until the cycle was done. Then, suddenly, after 3 months of failing my body could produce enough to solely bf.

    I think on a 1-5 scale of things not to give a bfing mom its a 4. I asked my doctor if it was safe and she swore it was. Turns out her top priority was to keep me from having more kids because she was afraid my boyfriend was abusive.

    She was a good, skilled doctor, but she was still fired. From the two big aide effects i experienced I would run far away from it.
  • Aurelina
    Aurelina Posts: 197 Member
    Also, be careful with the wiki article on P http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progesterone I thought it looked a bit fishy so I checked on the references. Ugh! One of the external links is to a site selling progesterone cream. Buzzz, the entire article is suspect until they boot off that bias.
  • Melacole23
    Melacole23 Posts: 15
    I personally had issues with it. I gained 15 pounds that I couldn't for the life of me seem to take off, but lost it shortly after I stopped taking it.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories