Depo-provera

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Steffers2318

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Hi,

I took Accutane oh, about three years ago. My face was mostly clear after, just the occasional zit here and there. Now, I have been on the depo provera birth control shot for going on a year and three months. After about six months on the shot, I went back to my derm for the first time in a while because my zits were coming back. She said the depo can aggravate acne (I had not known this!) and gave me Duac, saying that would make my face "pretty good" but not perfect. Well, that worked for a while but now my face is getting bad again...I am thinking I am becoming immune to the Duac.

So anyway, I am planning to get off the shot because the acne is getting on my nerves and it's not really worth it anyway (the depo provera). My question is...did anyone else have acne while on depo? How long did it take for it to go away after you stopped the shot (if it did)?

Any info would be appreciated...Sorry it took me so long to get to the point :)
 
Hi,

I know its been a while since this post has been written, but I'm going through the same situation. I've been on Depo for 4 years now and everything is perfect except for the acne. I tried everything and went on Accutane twice with great results but bad acne always came back. My doctor always assured me it wasn't because of Depo. So now I want to change birth control because I can't live with all this acne. Did you find a solution or change birth control????

Any suggestion would be very appreciated! Thanks!
 
i jus got on depo provera a month ago and i thought it was great :) until about a couple weeks later i started breaking out. first it was mild on my face. i didnt really have acne just the occasional pimple here and there but now i was breaking out with mild acne. then i started getting bacne that was itchy and red. then i would start itching in several areas of my body. my thighs, calves, arms ect. i am seriously thinking about getting off the shot and back the pills or the patch. in my opinion its not worth it.
 
Well, it's really funny that this was here because I haven't been on this board in a looong time.

Anyway, yes I stopped the shot when I couldn't take the acne anymore (plus I'd heard some bad stuff about it). My OB/GYN never said anything about acne, so I didn't think it was related. But then when I went back to the derm to try to do something about all the zits, she kinda said "Well DUH, of course it's related, it's the hormone that causes acne in a lot of people" (not those worRAB exactly, but something like that).

So then she put me on 100mg of spironolactone and duac (topical benzoyl peroxide with antibiotic) and that's worked great for a couple years. I didn't stay on bc, but you should try to switch to Yaz ?, I think it is. That has a small amount of the spiro in it, and would be much better acne-wise.

Hope that helps! Let me know what you do and how it goes! :)
 
witch is weird when i was on depo i stoped breaking out now im worried if i get off imma break out bad agian and i really wanna get off i did weigh 113 now i weigh 137 and it all belly fat.so who has the same experiance and can help me
 
not only can depo give you acne, It can cause alot of other problems in your body. Especially the poster who has been on it longer than 2 yrs, I was on it for 4 myself ,I also thought it was great, no period , but I had one adverse reaction after another. All along my doctor just kept treating my symptoms, And not once did she associate it with the depo. My last shot was april 2007. My perioRAB are still not normal. They started back in october 2007 and they are 2 per month and they last on the avg of 12 to 14 days.
I never read the pamphlet in the box, I never opened it, I always went to the pharmacy picked up my bag ,and I would hand the whole bag over to the nurse.
I didn't find out the adverse effects until after I stopped the shot,I did a search to see when I would get my period back. Well I had a huge eye opener when I realized I had been suffering off and on from the side effects about 22 out of the 25 listed.
removed
Of course not every woman is the same, but we all should be better informed of the risks involved of any medicine and all the side effects.
Acne is definately on the list. MIne was just a pretty bad facial rash that just wouldn't go away. My brilliant doctor kept ssaying mine was a fungas rash(like athletes foot on my face lol)
Too bad she didn't read the pamphlet: Rash was listed as one of the side effects. She could have saved me alot of greif over the past couple of years.
I also have osteopenia too.
kathy
 
Alikat709 - your situation is similar to my cousins. She also wasn't informed about the side effects of the depo provera shots. She unfortunately was on it for 7 years!! She got off it i think in noveraber 2008 and her hair began falling out, her period still hasn't come back, she's put on weight and found out this drug depletes your calcium and you should be on a calcium supplement if you are taking these shots. She now has the start of osteoperosis, but i think it's called osteopenia and her doctor isn't sure that it's reversable. So right now it's a wait and see game.

I'd advise people to be cautious in what drugs they take. Sure doctors say they're safe, but have you done the research. Even regular birth control depletes your Vit B's and your calcium so you have to be careful with that and take maybe a multivitamin while you are on it.

I mainly wanted to comment when i saw the depo provera title on the post. As for the acne, has anyone tried herbal treatments from a naturopath or balancing their hormones naturally?
 
Hi thanks for the response. I just got an IUD (Mirena) this week to see if this kind of birth control will clear up my acne since I can't take the pill (gave me what seemed to be little seizures, pretty scary!). My depo is only done in about 2 weeks so I imagine it will take a while to see results. Also I've been on the Obagi skin care treatment...its kinda like proactive but it makes it worse before it gets better and is it ever worse!!! I'm about to give that up real soon. I'm praying this Mirena works, I will post back if I see results.

Oh and by the way for anyone thinking bout getting Mirena, I shouldn't have looked up posts on that because I was freaked out about all the stuff people have experienced! But I have to say it was easy, quick and 3 minutes of pain. I haven't had children either and it wasn't so bad. Had cramping for a day and now I'm back to normal. No perioRAB because of the depo...for now anyways. And if you don't like it you can just get it taken out easily. Like it so far!
 
I started Depo back in 1994 and was on it for 2 years. Of course, back then in 94, we didn't know as much about Depo as we do now. More studies have been done and we've learned a lot more about this method of birth control. I do remeraber when I started the shot, the pamphlets were very vague. No mention of any of the side effects that I suffered. Now, there are so many things listed in the pamphlet.....plus we have the internet to be able to do some research. I don't know HOW people can just start taking something without doing research first, especially today when we have the internet at our disposal. I'm not trying to criticize anyone, but if I had the resources available to me back in 1994 that are available to me today, I would have learned a lot about Depo and NEVER would have started it. I had a horrific experience with it. It wasn't while I was on it that I had the problem, or at least that is what I was told. I remeraber different things popping up over the 2 years I was on it, and when I would ask my doctor about it, he would say that the Depo had nothing to do with it. Unfortunately, being young at the time.....I believed him. It wasn't until years later that I began digging and learned so much from reading other peoples horror stories and realized that they had the same story to tell as I had.

So, I guess what I'm trying to do here is just throw a warning out there. Acne is just one of the problems you can face. There are so many other things that can go wrong. I battled infertility after using Depo....and I had no fertility issues whatsoever prior to it. I started Depo after the birth of my 1st child. It also took 5 years for my period to return!!! Yes, 5 years....and then I only got a few perioRAB each year. It wasn't until 9 years after my last injection that my perioRAB returned to normal. I've also been diagnosed with PCOS and Type 2 diabetes in this process. None of these health problems existed in me before using Depo. I also gained 50 pounRAB while I was on it. Also, the doctor that diagnosed my PCOS was from Mayo Clinic (which for those of you who are unaware....Mayo is a very reputable clinic in the USA). This doctor specifically told me that he has seen so many women end up in my shoes after using Depo. The sad thing is that if you search the internet....you will find a LOT of people who have the same exact story as mine.

So, again....I'm not trying to criticize anyone.....just trying to help people out. So many people take this and start noticing all of these things happening to their bodies and they just blow it off because their doctor tells them that it isn't cause of the Depo. The doctors have a responsibility to their patients, but also to the pharmaceutical companies too!!! Remeraber that!!!
 
I'm just updting since my last post in Septeraber. I was on Depo and got Mirena implanted (since I can't take the pill) and everything is great. My only and biggest side effect from Depo gave me severe acne which only started 3 years into taking Depo. Was great otherwise. I changed to Mirena and Accutane which fixed my acne. Takes time to get Depo out of the system though.

I really recommend Mirena... + no period. My doc said its the birth control with the least side effects. Docs recommend it for women who had kiRAB, but I haven't had any and it was honnestly painless.
Depo is great if you don't have the acne, but don't forget multivitamine and bone density tests to make sure your not lacking calcium. And accutane is my miracle acne cure but there are side effects. Worth it though.
 
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