The DEPO-PROVERA PROBLEM

For decades, women have been told the shot is simple. Safe. Convenient. One injection every three months, no pills, no questions. Except there are questions. Depo-Provera has shaped millions of women's bodies and lives, yet its risks have often been whispered, buried in footnotes or not mentioned at all.

- By Eleanor le Riche

IN March last year, Carte Blanche aired an episode investigating a possible link between brain tumours and the contraceptive injection DepoProvera. Since then, though, there seems to have been very little change - and it begs the question: Why is there such hesitancy in informing women about the risks involved?

The history of Depo-Provera

Hailed as a breakthrough in birth control, Depo-Provera was a game-changer when it first came onto the market: no daily pill, just an injection every three months.

The active ingredient in Depo-Provera is medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), first synthesised in the 1950s by the Upjohn Company (now part of Pfizer). It's ability to suppress ovulation made MPA an effective contraceptive option.

Controversy followed swiftly. During clinical trials in the 1960s and 1970s, Depo-Provera was tested extensively on women in developing countries – often without informed consent or adequate explanation of potential side-effects. At the same time, animal studies raised many red flags, with findings of tumour development prompting the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to initially deny approval. Despite these concerns, Depo-Provera was eventually approved for contraceptive use in 1992.

In South Africa alone, an estimated 3.6 million women use Depo-Provera for contraception – and globally, about 74 million women rely on the injectable.

Discovering a pattern