Posted on 08/23/2004 5:54:58 PM PDT by Coleus
By Rita Rubin, USA TODAY
Use of the contraceptive Depo Provera appears to triple women's risk of infection with chlamydia and gonorrhea, a study reports Monday.
An estimated 20 million to 30 million women worldwide use Depo Provera, which is injected into the arm or buttocks every three months.
"It's popular among young women particularly," says Christine Mauck of the Contraceptive Research and Development Program in Arlington, Va. Not only is it convenient and effective, says Mauck, who wasn't involved in the new study, "it can't be found by your mother."
But other studies have suggested that Depo Provera, as well as oral contraceptives, raise users' risk of contracting chlamydia and gonorrhea, two common sexually transmitted diseases.
The study, which appears in the journal Sexually Transmitted Diseases, focused on 819 women ages 15 to 45 who were just starting birth control prescribed at two Baltimore-area Planned Parenthood (news - web sites) clinics. About three-quarters were single. Of the women, 354 chose the pill, 114 chose Depo Provera and 351 opted for a non-hormonal contraceptive. The women were tested for chlamydia and gonorrhea after three, six and 12 months.
By the end, 45 women had contracted chlamydia or gonorrhea. Women using Depo Provera were about three and a half times more likely to develop one of the infections than women using non-hormonal contraceptives. The researchers say they can't yet explain their finding.
They also found that pill users were 50% more likely to become infected than users of non-hormonal contraceptives, but there were so few cases that could have been due to chance, says lead author Charles Morrison of Family Health International in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
Morrison says one or two more high-quality studies are needed to confirm his findings. But, he says, the study does highlight the need for hormonal contraceptive users to also use condoms if they aren't in mutually monogamous relationships. Hormonal contraceptives alone don't protect against STDs, and, as this study suggests, Depo Provera might raise the risk of infection.
Because researchers didn't randomly assign women to contraceptive methods, they can't be absolutely sure whether the Depo Provera itself or some characteristic of women who opted for it raised the infection risk, Mauck says. But the authors say it's unlikely that differences in the women led to the finding.
The study was paid for by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Did the researchers control for the number of sexual partners the women had unprotected sex with? I would think that women who have many partners would be more likely to use Depro Provera than women who are in monogamous relationships.
What I heard on the radio news report, the women did not wear condoms and had multiple sexual partners. You think they would have listened to their health teacher about these things. You play, you pay. In NJ, mandatory family life classes begin in the FIRST grade.
And they wonder why AIDS is going up.
You can't fool Mother Nature... if you fool around a lot , or if you have abortions, you are automatically increasing your risk of cervical cancer and breast cancer, respectively.
The stuff sucks. I tried it to help control my endometriosis, and it didn't work. Guess I was one of the 2%. As for the STDs, I wouldn't know. I'm a good girl.
ping
Me, too. I got an injection of it during my endometriosis treatment, and it almost killed me.
Within a week, I was undergoing a battery of neurological tests, with sky-high blood pressure and hands that wouldn't do what my brain was telling them to.
Thank Goodness!
Yikes! Mine wasn't that bad. I just had horrible memory loss, nasty mood swings and constant bleeding. I'd rather deal with the pain.
It's worse if a women does'nt get knocked up or go on the pill (which hormonally replicates knocked upness) by the time she is about 20 she increases her risk of breast cancer. The book says be fruitfull and multiply, no dawdling.
Among non-IV using strict heteros who do not have sex with non-IV using heteros - do you know this to be true?
Sounds like the purpose of this research was to get more grants to pursue research on my previous question. They might not have initially had the funds to do as detailed a study as they wanted.
I know what you mean. I refused any treatment after that experience.
And does that hold true for single women as well? Good grief.
While I have a vetvet handy, may I ask at what age I can expect my weimaraner to have her first heat?
Ugh. Thanks for the info - forewarned is forearmed.
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