Spotting with Depo
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Spotting with Depo
| Thu, 04-26-2007 - 10:07pm |
I wish I'd had this board before I started the shot. I have a friend who recommended that I get it. She seems to love it. Unfortunately, about two weeks after getting the shot I started bleeding pretty heavily. I knew this might happen but I didn't realize it would continue. I bled heavily for two weeks and ever since then I have been spotting. This has been about two mos ago that it started and I'm ready for it to be over. The worst part is how much it grosses out my husband. He won't touch me, because of it. I will definitely not be getting the shot again.

Hi,
I’m sorry you’re having such a hard time with this.
Here are some options as I see them:
1. Use a prescription strength dose of ibuprofen (Advil/Motrin) to see if that will lessen the bleeding. I have used 800 mg 3x per day. Ask your doctor if this is ok first.
2. If you can use estrogen, see if your doctor can prescribe estrogen to get you through the next month with less or no bleeding. It comes in patch or pill form and is the other hormone that is in combined (regular) birth control pills.
3. Try the Instead menstrual cup. It is a disposable cup that you use to collect the blood instead of a tampon or pad. Some women are not comfortable with touching themselves in order to use these, but I like them. If you use a fresh one, you can have sex with it in and it won’t make a mess on dh. (That’s why I like them!) I buy them at WalMart or Target in the tampon aisle.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Holly
Hi
Jill
I totally agree!
Jill
Another suggestion: talk to your local health store and see what they can suggest. They might be able to recommend a supplement that will help support your system against the side effects of depo. Or have a look on Google and see what you can come up with. Also, they might have suggestions on how to help your natural hormones get back together after you get past the point where your next shot is due.
I fully recommend talking to your doc about an estrogen therapy though. When I had heavy bleeding for weeks at a time on depo, I ended up going to a gyn who immediately put me on estrogen patches to stop the bleeding. They were a god-send for the two months I was on them. After I stopped the patches, I was about a month past when my next depo shot was due, and my cycles went back to being highly irregular for the next four months until I got a Mirena IUD. So estrogen therapy will help while you are using it, but I won't guarantee that your body won't still be screwed up from the depo once you stop it.
That's why it could be a good idea to talk to a naturopath or health store about other things you can take to help support your reproductive system. Even so much as taking a multivitamin supplement containing Vitex (which helps to regulate hormones) would be better than nothing (and we can always benefit from extra vitamins!).
If you do decide to go the ibuprofen route, be very alert for stomach symptoms.