[Anticonception with the progestational hormone Depo-Provera]

Conization was performed on a woman who had cervical cancer; later checkups showed that the patient was cancer-free. The patient underwent a normal pregnancy despite oral contraceptive use and wished to use Depo-Provera an injectable preparation consisting of 150 mg medroxyprogesterone acetate. There are no studies that prove that use of oral contraceptives can cause cancer; if there are no signs of cancer then pregnancy or oral contraception would be safe. Depo-Provera is slightly less effective than oral contraceptives. It has been reported that 30-40% of the women using it develop bleeding irregularities e.g. amenorrhea. Only 84% of the women who used Depo-Provera had normal menstruation 18 months after discontinuing its use. Therefore Depo-Provera is contraindicated for young women women who will later have children and older women (because of increased incidence of bleeding irregularities).