Depo Provera and bleeding....

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-12-2003
Depo Provera and bleeding....
2
Fri, 07-09-2004 - 4:58pm
Has anyone experienced, or can explain this?? I am 39 and started depo six months ago...periods stopped completely and immediately...last week, starting bleeding, light but steady..and it hasn't stopped going on 12 days...not to be too gross, but it seems to be "old" blood, brownish, stringy...disgusting! doctor said it is not unusual, but since i hadn't bled for 6 months, it seems strange...
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-08-2004
Mon, 07-12-2004 - 3:25pm
That same thing happened to me several times during the course of being on depo (6 years) Your body is probably still getting used to the shot.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Tue, 07-13-2004 - 8:23am
Hey meme! As you probably know, Depo Provera is a VERY strong dose of progestin. It is very effective at suppressing ovulation, which is why it's such effective birth control. One of the downsides in some respects, though, is that there's no estrogen. Why is this a problem? When you are cycling normally, the ovulation process provides you with estrogen that develops your endometrium and does other good things for you. When you take the pill and ovulation is suppressed, some of that estrogen is added back in a synthetic form. When you're using Depo, though, there is no estrogen going back into your body and some women don't produce enough on their own when they're not ovulating to keep the lining of the uterus stable and the blood vessels leak. If this continues to be a problem, you might ask your doctor about adding just a little supplemental estrogen (you can get just estrogen in pill form) to see if that might stop the bleeding.

Some women have persistent bleeding with Depo, other women don't, I guess you may just be lucky. ;)

Good luck!

Judie
Co-cl for Birth Control
Judie Cl for Birth Control