depo-provera (3 month contraceptive injection) anyone been on it?

[The[cookie]Doctor]

Hollye, if you after a contraceptive that you have and forget about you might be better trying the implanon... If it doesn't suit you you can have it out straight away, and if it does, you're set for three years...
A lot of the side effects of depo and implanon are similar, however I know with implanon roughly 20% of people get no period while on it..

[Visitor8]

I have the depo and LOVE it! It has been my main contraception for the better part of 2 years

I didn't get any side effects except the no period for the 3 months which was OK by me

I came off it 16th September of last year, got my normal period first month in November and was pregnant 2nd week in December after 1 week of trying.

I am going back on it soon, just waiting until my next AF as I want to make sure my 1 night of fun without protection didn't produce a bub lol As soon as I know that I am back on it. I think it's wonderful!

I know 6 of my friends are using the depo and only 1 had a bad side effect that made her super cranky all the time, other then that all good. I did think about the implanon but I have heard too many stories about the implanon moving around and pain in the area, and my friend needing to get hers cut out and had stitches... just doesn't do it for me lol plus I am a bit freaked out by having something foreign stuck in my arm for 3 years ...

[Smoke Jaguar]

Similar to others, I lost my libido - GREAT contraceptive! Except that I also put on more weight than I'd ever done before - went from roughly 60kg to about 75 and stayed that way for a few months. My metabolism was totally shot for years and only kicked back to 'normal' when I had DS. I had 3 shots of it before I realised what was going on and stopped it. It stopped my period all together and it came back about 4 or so months after I had the last injection. Lucky, we weren't thinking of TTC then, anyway. It would be another 6 months before we'd TTC, and it took about 3 months from when we decided it was 'time'.
I have heard of links to cervical cancer that I will have to look into, but I was told that by a nurse, so I'm inclined to give it some credibility.

[Trillian]

One think I'd like to point out with the Depo and the Implanon is that if the depo doesn't agree with you, then it's likely that the implanon wont either. It's just not as simple as going back and having it taken out if it doesn't agree with you either.

[paradise lost]

I could have written Trillian's post.

Bloating, depression, no libido, i gained weight too (4-6kg) and i spotted constantly for the 6 months i was on Depo (2 injections) and for 7 months after the 3rd one would have been due. I LITERALLY had 17 days of those 13months when i wasn't spotting or bleeding. I hated it. I also hate that when i was there for my second injection i said i wanted to discuss concerns and the nurse said, "oh, ok, let me get your skin ready (with the sterile wipe etc.) and we can talk" and while i was saying "I'm still spotting the whole time" she jabbed me with the second injection! I was 17 and as far as she was concerned avoiding teen pregnancy was WAY more important than providing me with safe, satisfactory contraception. I never went back.

I now have the Mirena. It's the same hormone but in a coil inside my uterus. Studies have shown that with the Minipill you have a certain amount of the artificial hormone in your system. With Depo it's the same amount circulating, with the implanon it's about 50% of the pill/depo dose that actually circulates and with the mirena it's 10%. Implanon and Mirena need to circulate less hormone because the delivery is completely stable (constant, rather than peaking after a pill or injection and then dropping off - with the depo you begin with MASSES of the hormone circulating because they have to give you enough that in 3 months it still won't have dropped below the level needed to keep you sterile. On Depo and the minipill i had masses of annoying symptoms. At the mirena level (10% of the pill/depo) i had spotting for the first months of Mirena but i never got the other symptoms and i feel great now. I will definitely be using Mirena after i'm done having babies and as an alternative to sterilisation.

Bx

[Danni]

I was on depo for around 3 years before I met Dh. It was fantastic.

No bleeding, nothing. It did take me a while to fall pregnant afterwards, but I think that has got to do with DH as well me.

[[M]umma[M]ia]

thanks heaps girls.

I did have a big talk with my doc about it. See i was on the mini pill (Bfing) then i went to the full one and i kept forgetting taking it. So i went and seen him today and he talked me through my options and to me.. i thought the injections were the best way to go. But saying that.. I have PCOS n i didnt want it to stuff up my system completley.

As for the implanon and mirena, i also dont like the thought of foreign objects being in me. Also Implanon last for 3 years and we will prob want another bub around then and having the injection i dont have to go get it taken out IYKWIM.

I feel ok atm, my arm is just a little sore.