Posted on 11/07/2011 2:51:46 AM PST by markomalley
Arizona State University researchers have linked birth-control shot Depo Provera to memory loss.
The ASU study connects medroxyprogesterone acetate -- also known as MPA, the hormone active in Depo Provera and many widely used menopausal hormone therapies -- to impaired memory in rodents. The study, published in the journal Psychopharmacology, was led by Blair Braden, an ASU psychology doctoral student, and Heather Bimonte-Nelson, an ASU associate professor of psychology and director of the Bimonte-Nelson Memory and Aging Lab.
Pfizer Inc., the maker of Depo Provera, could not immediately be reached for comment.
The work was done in collaboration with Laszlo Prokai of the University of North Texas Health Sciences Center and Alain Simard of Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix.
Braden said she began asking questions about the effects of the drug because she was concerned about her friends taking MPA as a contraceptive.
When she first started researching the hormone, it was looking at how MPA was used in hormone therapy and how menopause relates to memory. That’s when she discovered the hormone also is used in Depo Provera.
“It’s rare to have a contraceptive that only has one hormone in it,” she said. “It made it that much more shocking. Depo Provera is a big fad. It’s easy to take.”
But for a birth-control shot that offers a convenient alternative for women who don’t want to remember to take a daily pill, the irony is that it may impair memory.
(Excerpt) Read more at bizjournals.com ...
ping
why does this not surprise me?
My doc once said that the depo shots were for stupid women.
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