• 27
  • August
    2010

With more than nine million users around the world, Depo Provera is one of the most popular contraceptives among women. It's longer-lasting than pill-based contraceptives and requires women to receive only a single shot every three months. However, despite the positives, there may be one fairly serious negative side to Depo Provera.

Swiss researchers at University Hospital Basel recently found evidence that would suggest Depo Provera leads to a greater risk of broken bones and fractures among the women using it. While researchers have cautioned that the implications of the study are not completely clear, they echo a warning added to the drug's label in 2004 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Pfizer.

"Use of Depo-Provera Contraceptive Injection may cause you to lose stored calcium in your bones. The longer you use Depo-Provera Contraceptive Injection the more calcium you are likely to lose ... loss of calcium may cause weak, porous bones (osteoporosis) that could increase the risk that your bones might break."

Despite some hesitance, researchers were very clear in pointing out that extended use of Depo Provera did seem to correspond with a greater risk of fractures. In their study, 17,527 women who had been diagnosed with a fracture during a 13-year span and more than 70,000 who had not suffered any broken bones were questioned.

Women who had used Depo Provera one or two times showed an 18 percent increase in susceptibility to fractures. Women who had received three-to-nine shots of the contraceptive had their risk increased to 36 percent. 10 or more sessions and the risk increased by more than 50 percent.

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