Irregular periods and bleeding with Depo Provera

I wish I had found this forum before starting on the depo. I've been on it for just over 3 weeks now and have bled uncontrollably ever since. My reason for choosing this over anything else was the fact that I was told I would stop bleeding completely and possibly gain weight. Well I've gone off my food and at 5' 10" am down to 45kg (99lb). I feel horrible all the time. I have constant headaches, cramping, dizzy spells, nausea, am pale and dry skinned, tired and I just don't feel myself. I don't know what to do, I'm losing weight rapidly and don't feel like I can do this much longer :-(

I took my first shot in July.
Since then i have not gained any weight! in fact i went from 105 to 95 how awesome!
however, about three weeks ago i was spotting and i just kind of ignored that
and i had sex with my boyfriend during which i actually started.
kiiiind of embarrassing! since that time i have been bleeding non stop, it goes from light periods
to heavy ones, and sometimes it kind of stops for a day, during which i have sex.
i am due for my next shot in 2 weeks.
i am wondering!
is my consistant bleeding a side effect of the shot
or is it because i had sex with my boyfriend while i was on my period
and this is just a weird side effect of that?

Hi.. I have had the depo shot twice now... i have blead every single day... and my 3rd one was due on the 8th so i decided not to get it again... but im still bleeding now.. and im taking the pill but it hasnt stopped it does anyone know how long i was continue bleeding for ..x

i had the depo because before that, both pills i had been on had caused me to bleed non stop. i was bleeding for 3 months straight and the doctor suggested depo as it would stop my period, i went 4 weeks without bleeding, and since then, i have been bleeding ever since. the doctor has given me pills to try and stop the bleeding but it isnt happening. i regret getting the depo now as not only have i lost my sex drive, again, but im getting very stressed out from still bleeding and feeling really unwell and tired all the time !!!

if you're considering using depo...DON'T. this shot messes with your body so much its not worth it! i had one shot and it made me act like i was PMSing for the entire three months. i had very light periods but no sex drive at all and i was constantly irritable. i decided to not get a second shot because of the way it made me feel but then my light periods turned into no periods at all...for 10 months! i was afraid that i had screwed up my reproductive system so much that i would never be able to have children or be a normal woman again. then my period suddenly came back full force and hasn't stopped for almost two months. i still feel irritable and moody all the time but now i'm also constantly exhausted and bleeding heavily. i wish i would have never gotten that shot! DONT use depo!

I started the Depo shot because I wanted to get away from the nightmare of a period that I would get very month. I was afraid to take pills because my sister was sent to the hospital because of a blood clot that she got while on pills. She went on depo and another friend of mine is on it as well with no problems what so ever. They both have no periods and are doing great. I thought that was the way to go and the doctor also said that was the main side effect and I decided to go through with it. But when I was about to get the shot I had gotten a small feeling that I shouldn't do this but blew it off. Big mistake.

I am looking forward to having this out of my system. I hae been sent to the ER twice for the bleeding that I have experienced 8 weeks now. Though I have been able to get the bleeding to slow down it has never stopped. All the doctors I have seen since recieveing that shot don't understand why I was never told about this side effect. Which makes me really mad, if I had heard about this I would have never gotten on this shot. What ever you do, do not get this shot. It is not worht the effects it does to your body.

I have been in so much pain it is not funny, not even strong pain killers work on it. I feel like I am being stabbed. I don't feel clean any more because I do nothing but bleed. I felt horrible about myself with everything going on, I cry at the drop of a hate or any other emotion that changes at no notice. My roommates are so fed up with it and cannot wait till I move out. I have no idea what I would have done if not for my boyfriend. I had met him only a cuple of weeks before all this started. I was so scared that I was going to lose him but if nothing it has made us stronger. He has been amazing through this whole thing. He keeps telling me we willget through this and that has made all the difference in getting through this.

Please don't ruin your life with this shot. It is not worth it. And for any one going through this problem I am sorry to there is nothing that can be done but to wait it out and see how long it takes your body to recover from this shot. Just stay strong to get through it.

I too have taken the Depo shot, and have had the horrible, long term bleeding. For those of you that are saying that you took the shot for several years, with no problems, I want to make sure that you are aware of the loss in bone density that is across the board. It's not a rare sided effect. It happens to everyone. Most doctors will remind you to take calcium supplements, but the company itself warns to not take the shot for more than two years because of the risk of osteoporosis. That's not something I was told at the doctor's office. If the company itself is warning you to not take it, it must be a pretty serious concern. I've read on other forums where women in their late 20's, and early 30's end up with after taking the shot for several years. Please be careful!

I would not recommend Depo Provera to anyone especially young women who have not yet finished developing. I went on Depo at 18 thinking it was the answer to all of my problems. I was a competitive runner and hated having my periods- they screwed with my workouts and races. I was also sexually active and had no interest in becoming pregnant. Furthermore, my periods were irregular and I had horrible mood swings. My gynecologist told me Depo would correct all that and that is was safer than most traditional BC pills becuase it reduced the risk of certain diseases and infections. Being 18, uneducated about Depo and naive, I decided to jump in. I took Depo for an entire year during which I can remember no real problems occuring. HOWEVER, within the first month of my fifth cycle I started noticing some serious problems. Acne started first. I had always had clear skin, but suddenly I was breaking out everywhere- face, back, you name it. Then came the heavy bleeding. I would bleed for weeks with the worst cramps you can imagine. In my mind, they were probbaly worse than child birth. I remember waking up in the middle of the night and telling my boyfriend that I was dying and he needed to take me to the emergency room. I also remmeber having to crawl to the bathroom because I couldn't walk and having to sleep sitting on the toilet because I was bleeding so badly. When I went back to the gyno for my 6th shot, I told the nurse about all of my symptoms. Her answer....NORMAL- what the heck is normal about anything I've just said!?! She convinced me (I admit, I should've been smarter than this) to get my 6th shot saying that my system should go back to normal after that. I did and the bleeding and cramps continued. Finally, in February of '06 before my 7th shot, I decided I had had enough. I never went back to that gynecologist again and I took myself off birth control completely. Oh, I should mention that after starting the shot, I started having serious joint issues. I got bursitis in both of my hips and eventually got patella tendonitis in both of my knees which ended my running career. I spent an entire year in physical therapy- my bursitis finally went away but my knees are ruined. My physical therapist started doing some research on Depo and found that it can cause loss of bone density and osteoarthritis- a side effect my doctor failed to mention. So now, its 2009 and I have been off of Depo for over three years. By 2007, my periods had come back and are now regular than ever- pratically every 28 days on the dot with only the ocassional 2 day early or late period. However, my husband and I have been having unprotected sex since 2007 and have been wholeheartedly trying to concieve for about a year now and I'm still not pregnant. He has been tested and his hormone levels and sperm analysis came back fantastic. I am going to start my phase of testing within the next month or so (I'll keep you all updated on how it goes). I 100% believe that my difficulty in conceiving is a DIRECT result of my experience with Depo and I do NOT recommend it for anyone. If you are one of the lucky few who have been on Depo and had no side effects, congratulations. However, I seriously doubt you are in the majority. From the research I've done, most women have had issues similar to mine. I am now of the belief that we should not put anything into our bodies that will change the way in which they were meant to function. It is not healthy no matter what science and medicine tell you. In any case, I sincerely hope this post helps prevent some other young girl from having to go through what I did. I wish you all well and will keep you updated on my fertlity journey as it progresses. God Bless.

Hello I'm new to this n I signed up because i needed some answers. Ok so now tht I have read some stories I want to tell mines because I need answers. Reading ppl's experience made me not worry to much but here's my story...
On July 4th, I took my first depo shot before leaving the hospital from having an emergency c-section. I started bleeding the next day after my c-section. Taking the depo did not stop the bleeding for me. I'm 19 years old n I usually have normal periods every 26-28 days n it usually last for 7 days. Since the c-section, I bled till August ( about 52-56 )days. The bleeding finally stopped. It came back September 22, about 3 wks later from wen it stopped n lasted for 4 days n was very light. It came bAck October 4th n lasted till November 6th. I had intercourse with my husband on the 6th n it stopped bleeding. Then my period came back november 24th n for a second meaning the blood came into my panties, I used a tampon, took it out 3 hrs later n no blood was on it. Now it's the 25th n nothing still until 6pm tht evening it came back down. Ever since the 25 thru the 29 I had intercourse with my husband because he's away in the army. I came back home the 29th n the bleeding was light. On December 5th I just started bleeding very heavy soakin up about 4-5 pads a day. It's now dec. 8th n I'm still bleeding from nov.24th n started bleeding very heavy on dec. 5th. Is this normal after a depo shot taken in July? Could I still b bleeding from having sex? Y is my period more then fourteen days n gotten heavy on the 10th or 11th day? Should I wait to c if it calms down. My cycle has been very irregular since my c-section n the one depo shot I took. Does anyone has answers for me? It would really help. Thanks for reading my experince n this is now 2009.

This is my story of the Depo shot :
November of 2008 I had the Essure procedure done and before I left the hospital it was manditory I had to have the Depo shot. I started bleeding the next day, and it never stopped for the 3 months the Depo was in my system. Even after the three months I still continued to bleed for 2 or 3 weeks at a time with only a few days break. In June 2009 I went to a OBGYN and she said the side effects should stop by August. This is now December 2009, I am still bleeding, and I get headaches, which I havent ever had in my life. There was another woman whom wrote about fatigue, that is something I feel everyday for the last year now.
I hope that going on the birth control pill will make my cycle regular again.
Do any of you ladies know any way to stop the bleeding?
Thanks

I have used depo for several years and no periods, no side effects - love it

The Depo shot saved my life. I'm reading so many responses that say that the depo shot is the worst thing they've ever done. Well it was the best thing I did. When I began to mature at, oh I don't know, let's say I was 10 years old, my menstrual cycles were less than normal. They continued to worsen, through extremely painful, several hour-long cramps, extremely heavy bleeding that lasted the full week, and overall sickness the whole of my cycle. By the time I got into High School at 14-15 years old, it went to a whole new level: the bleeding began to stop and the cramps became more like actual labor pains. My mom had been trying to talk to her doctor to tell her I needed to be checked and looked at, but she maintained that I was too young to have any problems and that I needed to just work through it and eventually it would work itself out. Well finally when everything started to get so bad that I would be nauseous miss that whole week of school, I finally was able to get an appointment. However when I got in there, she wouldn't give me a physical, she only talked to me and put me on an all-hormone birth control pill to see how I would do on it. It gave me morning sickness for the 3 months I was taking it. It didn't help me, it made me worse and I missed more school my junior year than any other year. I quit it as soon as I could. It turns out that I'm severely allergic to hormones of any kind. My mom took me to see another doctor in the same building who listened to my symptoms and immediately agreed to a physical. That day I learned that I had endometriosis, a medical condition which my mother had growing up (the condition can be and often is hereditary). If we had waited much longer, surgery would have been my only option. To give y'all some information on endometriosis, it is the growth of cells similar to those that form the inside of the uterus (endometrial cells), but in a location outside of the uterus. Endometrial cells are the same cells that are shed each month during menstruation. The cells of endometriosis attach themselves to tissue outside the uterus and are called endometriosis implants. These implants are most commonly found on the ovaries, the Fallopian tubes, outer surfaces of the uterus or intestines, and on the surface lining of the pelvic cavity. Basically, it kind of eats away at your female organs. Painful stuff. My doctor (who is amazing) then suggested 2 birth control treatments, neither had barely any hormones in them. One was a pill that I would have to remember to take every morning, the other a shot that I would need to come in every 3 months and receive. Because of my condition, she said I could not afford to miss a day, and with me not being very good about remembering to take pills regularly like that, I chose the shot. I received the shot maybe 15 minutes later. Since then, I've been able to live my life without fear of that one week every month. It's true that for the first few cycles of shots I was bleeding/spotting a lot. But I've stayed on the shot for over two years now and the constant bleeding and spotting has stopped. However I would rather be spotting every day for the rest of my life than go back to the hell I was living without the depo shot. If you went into the depo shot without looking at it first or without talking about it with your doctor first, then it's you own fault for being disappointed. Depo Prevera is definitely not for everyone, as it is a higher level of birth control. A lot of women chose birth control because they don't want to deal with a natural part of life. Women go through menstrual cycles--they're somewhat unpredictable, uncomfortable and sometimes painful. But that's the life of a woman, our lives are unpredictable, uncomfortable, and often painful; but we grin and bare it. Birth control is not for everyone. So if you're a woman who's taking the pill just to take it so you don't have to deal with the pain and discomfort, you're not a real woman and you still have a lot of growing to do. Real women are tough and don't submit, and the menstrual cycle is your body's way of practicing for birth. So you're only doing yourself a disservice.
This is to all those who have been bashing the depo shot; it's not a c**p medication that doesn't work and only makes the "Woman Cycle" worse. It's a life saver for those who really need it. People like me.

I have been on Depo for about a year and a half and I LOVE IT! I have had some spotting and pretty much no periods. The first two months were a bit unusual, I had some longer periods. But overall it was just annoying, not painful or bad. I had no other problems. I love this shot. Do not listen to the horror stories, I know many people who are successfully on the shot. I have never loved any kind of birth control like I love this one. Also, the constipation and weight gain are caused by diet, one can change their diet and up their exercise to fit their new lifestyle. I have actually lost 27 pounds since I have been on it.

Just thought you might want to hear a positive story.

I got the Depo injection about 5 weeks ago.
This is the only thing my doctor advised me: "YOU WILL NOT GET YOUR PERIODS FOR 3 MONTHS"
Ofcourse being someone whos always hated her periods and who gets extremely bad period pain, i thought PERFECT.
YEAH RIGHT
For the past 3 weeks, ive either had spotting bleeding or a consistant period for 2 or 3 days. Its driving me aboslutely crazy. Ive never used this many tampons and liners in my life before. Ive always got cramps, period pain, abdominal pain and im always SCREAMING AND CRYING FROM PAIN.

My mood swings are unbelievable. Im so irritable, edgy and everything is bothering me. Last week i cried for 2 nights straight just because i felt like i could and if anyone questioned me i was going to eat their head off!!! My boyfriend cant take it anymore. He says this needle is driving HIM crazy - well imagine what its doing to me

Ive been getting headaches that stop me from sleeping and im always exhausted and drained. I have no energy to get out of bed in the morning and ive been sick twice in the last two weeks. My immune system SUX.
My sex drive is nearly nothing. The hairs on my arms are getting darker, ive been off my food and ive put on weight. someone who isnt eating is putting on weight??? Ive been constipated for 3 weeks and it doesnt matter what fiber suppliment i take, its not helping...

I strongly DO NOT recommend the injection. its completely stuffed up my body and thrown me off emotionally... and if you are considering it, MAKE SURE YOUR DOCTOR TELLS YOU ABOUT THESE SIDE AFFECTS

well i have gone through both sides of what ive read on this site!i had the depo at 15 years old and stayed onit carefree till i was 17,i was told it could take up to 2years to come out of my system and it did but i had my 1st period of 3yrs in 2005 which i didnt really take much notice of as i wasnt used 2 them and got pregnant after just the one period!i had my daughter in 2006 and wanted to go back on the depo as i hated periods!once i did the trouble started!!!because i was on it young i had 2 have a bone densitiy scan,which was fine so i stayed on the depo until 2008.then my doc did a 180 and said i couldnt be on it any longer.i did have a brake and went on the pill,which i found gave me less p.m.t but i still didnt like bleeding so i told my doc this and was put back onit :-(
Now i had just 3 injections starting in dec 08 till my next injec which is due the end of march 09 and im having the worse cramps,pmt,mood swing,loss of sexdrive and heavy bleeding(which i never had let alone while the depo was still in my system).my doc has told me it normal!!and i am 2 go back on the pill.i just think its silly to allow women to have this type of b.c when it ruins so many lives!im only 24 and my sexlife is completey gone!when i tell my doc these things she allways makes out there another reason but after reading some of there posts i see i am not alone!as i said i wouldnt warn anyone away from the depo as i had a good 3year stint onit but once you've had a baby i think it messes with you to much.im staying away!