Originally posted on DANGERS OF DEPO FACEBOOK PAGE 12.30.20

So many of us here took the Depo shot and weathered storms that we weren’t prepared for. Many of us still struggle years later.

Some of us experienced ill effects after the first shot, others after subsequent shots. For some, the problems started only when they stopped the shot. Many of us have been riddled with health problems that we didn’t have prior to using the shot.

We’ve experienced everything from a weakened immune system to pain so bad that we feel three times our age. Bones and joints are frequently impacted, why are we ignoring that black box warning anyway? We’ve experienced cancer, infections of all kinds. Even HIV. We’ve experienced bleeding for months at a time. Clots the size of your palm. We’ve been suicidal. We’ve felt everything with intensity. Anxiety, deep depression. We’ve struggled with infertility. We’ve lost our fertility. We’ve lost babies with miscarriage. We’ve experienced hormone imbalances. We’ve had the worst headaches and feel so dizzy. We’ve lost clumps of hair. We’ve lost our uteruses. And our teeth. We’ve lost relationships. Jobs. Careers. Who we were. We’ve cried ourselves to sleep so many nights. So many of us have never been the same since.

Many of us struggled without the help of our doctors and often times without real understanding from those around us. It’s just birth control right? Oh how alone we’ve felt. We’ve looked online and found both validation and comfort in others’ stories. There are so many of us out there hurt in one way or another, sometimes temporarily, sometimes indefinitely. Either way, we all have a story to tell about what Depo’s done.

Informed consent is a common problem with Depo. Women are routinely told very little about it and when they develop health problems, Depo is never to blame. But our stories are so similar. And there’s so many of us. Everyday women join our community, send emails, direct messages and ask questions. By now there are over 4,100 of us here, sadly that number is always climbing. Let’s face it, you’re not following this page unless you’ve been affected by Depo in some way or another.

We deserve better.

The Depo shot is quite the concoction of dangerous chemicals. Here’s what you need to know.

There are seven listed ingredients plus "when necessary, pH is adjusted with sodium hydroxide or hydrochloric acid, or both.” – adding these two, makes nine. Of these possible nine ingredients, only one of these things isn’t an irritant, health hazard, flammable, corrosive and or acutely toxic.

When I was doing research for this piece, I double and triple checked the spellings of the chemical names, I couldn't believe what I was reading. I kept thinking out loud “there’s got to be a mistake here, there’s NO WAY this is actually in the shot.” But, ingredient after ingredient the spelling was right, these are the terrifying chemicals that make up a Depo shot.

The ingredients list can be found here: 

• PRESCRIBING INFORMATION pg 10
• 2018 PRODUCT MONOGRAPH pg 47

​Both of these documents are easily found online but aren’t reader friendly. I imagine that most of us feel overwhelmed by the medical jargon that bombards the pages. Small print too. For many of us, it’s like a foreign language and it gets overwhelming fast. It can be a deterrent, I think that’s where many of us get derailed and give up on understanding what any of it means.

For all the things that have a glossary of terms index, having this for product information like the Depo shot, where using the drug comes with so much risk would be so helpful – don’t you think? How many of us even saw the product monograph or FDA highlights of prescribing information before taking Depo? Those that did, how many breezed through it because we simply couldn’t understand what we were reading? Often without proper consult from prescribing doctors too, so many of us took this shot blindly.

This is what the FDA Highlights of Prescribing Information document lists as Depo’s ingredients:

Medroxyprogesterone Acetate 150 mg
Polyethylene Glycol 3350 28.9 mg
Polysorbate 80 2.41 mg
Sodium Chloride 8.68 mg
Methylparaben 1.37 mg
Propylparaben 0.150 mg
Water for injection quantity sufficient
When necessary, pH is adjusted with Sodium Hydroxide or Hydrochloric Acid, or both.

For each of these ingredients I’ve listed the amount that’s in a single shot, its drug class, chemical safety and safety signal information. I’ve also broken down what each drug class classification means and then discussed the ingredient itself.
 
Grab a warm beverage and cozy in – we have a lot to cover.