i started my diet 5 days ago and have lost 5 pounds already!!
i put on over 125 pounds over the last 5 years, some emotional eating, MOST related to depo-provera.
after doing extensive research online, imagine my surprise when i found that depo messes up your carbohydrate metabolism and is not recommended for diabetics (so far the tests have show that i am not). it is all making more and more sense now.
i went through SEVERE withdrawls on my 3rd day. i was shaking, almost like delirium tremors, and my body felt like bricks.
the next day it was fine, and yes i was supplementing (LOTS of l-glutamine!!) , i used to work at a GNC
so if anyone else is going through having to take of these next to impossible depo pounds, i would love to share research and ideas with you.

We've had a few discussions here about depo provera injections. It sounds like you've done your research on the subject. Click here to read.

All the best to you, and please keep sharing your successes with all of us. We like to hear from "losers"

Doreen

Hi,

I am also a new member and I have been on Depo for a year and a half. I too have read the "horror" stories, but I wanted to give you another perspective. I chose Depo because I was suffering from intensly painful periods. It is true that for the first three shots, I had some strange episodic mood swings, but I experienced these before my DEPO as PMS. I also bled off and on for six months! And I still experience some spotting if I do really heavy exercise OR if I get my shot near the end of the "window period". I did gain some weight while on Depo, but I probably would have gained the weight anyway (I was putting on about 5lbs a year since I started university). While I don't discount the 'horror' stories posted on the Web, for me this therapy has been my salvation. I missed an average of 2 days a month of work before I went on Depo, and now that I have stabalized on the drug, I experience NO PERIODS, NO monthly discomfort, and thank god...NO more PMS: thus no more intense food cravings, and mood swings. I used to experience fierce food cravings the week before my period, especially for chocolate, french bread, and ice-cream, and I am not sure whether or not it was these cravings that caused me to become so bloated ...and then miserable. As you can see, for me, the initiation period on Depo, while awkward, was nothing compared to the inconvenience and bloody pain of having periods. In other words, if it is worth it to you, you may want to try it for at least a year. Because of all the bad publicity, I think people like myself are not offerred Depo soon enough. I had to beg my GP to put me on it!!!

I have been on the protein diet now since July 10th, and my weight loss seems in line with the expected 2-3lbs per week. However, I am sure that you know that every person is different and the symptoms that you describe are extreme enough to consider not continuing on Depo...wasn't your doctor concerned about your symptoms? I know of enough studies (published in peer-reviewed journals) countering the assertion that contraceptives (including DEPO) cause significant weight gain (>5lbs). I would be concerned that something else is going on...I really don't think it is necessarily the Depo.

Cheers,

Jenn

thank you so much for the fast and poignant response Doreen!!
it helps so much to read of others wonderful achievements with this way of life, even if we are not all suffering the same problems.... plus, it is day 7, 7 pounds lost!!!

jenn,

"...I really don't think it is necessarily the Depo. "

opinions are so varied on so many different subjects and the way people form opinions is always so amazing to learn about, it shows so much about a person. the opinion you have concluded with is most certainly one you are not alone in having, although a bit misinformed.
hmm. yes. i can understand, with the staggering amount of women on depo, that it will not effect all women the same way, even within controlled studies. which would ignore the few like me who have unbelievable (hence your opinion) symptoms from the disruption of our natural cycle and hormonal balance. i mean really, do you think it took over 25 years to get approved by the FDA because it has no serious side effects?
all i know is that i have been on and off depo for over 5 years. i suffer from endometriosis, which is far more intense that just having bad cramps. i fear being on depo because i know what it does to me mentally, physically and spiritually, but in the same ways, i fear just as much if not more being off of it. i told my boyfriend the last time i decided to go on depo, i don't care if i become a whale, i cannot take this pain one more time. i do not eat enough food to justify the amount of weight i gain (no i know why, ultra-low fat, almost all carb)especially as active as i am. it is not a question of willpower, desire or gumption, and people who spend any amount of time with me notice the same things almost immediately. as has my new wonderful doctor who confirmed my suspicions. and supported me in my new outlook and diet.
i was put on depo without being told of any of the side effects, or that matter, i was not even given a pregnancy test, if i had been pregnant the baby would have died.
on depo, the reason you stop bleeding is the artificial progesterone forces the body to do so.
you may not think so, but for a drug to be able to stop something that women have been doing since the inception of time, it must be doing something serious.
so open your mind a bit and realize that your is not the only case of a woman being on depo or the reactions. with millions of women on it in just in the states alone, i shutter to think of how many other people have to deal with the crap i did.
i just hope they are fortune enough to find a better doctor than my old one, and to have the luck or good sense to pick up a copy of Dr. Atkin's book. maybe they too will be able for the first time in a long time to control the way their hormonally freaked out body reacts to food.

Hi alsoyou,

I was a bit dismayed by your reply! I did not realize you have been on depo for so long, and I was only trying to share my initial problems with you, in the hopes that your symptoms, as were mine, would be transitory.

I also thought I acknowledged that the kinds of side-effects you describe have been described by others, I just felt that since they are not typical, other more common causes should be ruled out.

From your response, I assume you have researched and ruled out all other causes with your doctor...my apologies, given that, my response may have seemed insensitive.

I am shocked that your physician did not give you the litany of side-effects of depo, but I suspect that you are correct in assuming that this happens all to often (as you know, my experience was exactly the opposite). You have a right to be frustrated...so often doctor's and health professionals (myself included) ignore the problems while celebrating the successes of any medical treatment. Oh, and I am REQUIRED to have a preganancy test before every depo shot. I believe this is becoming standard of practice. Yet, in my clinic, there have been two cases of pregnancy while on Depo, and both pregnancies carried to term, and the babies appear at this time to be normal.
So what do you mean about the fetus being terminated? Are there reports of this? If this is true, then the Mother Risk program is giving out misinformation, and I should inform them of any new studies, or case reports...your research would be valuable for this. You probably have investigated alternatives to Depo therapy so I wont go into those, but your situation: having to choose one hell or the other is truly terrible.

Hence, I don't however understand why you feel that I am misinformed.... You agree that your symptoms are not the typical experience with Depo, and that was simply my point...Just because they aren't typical doesn't mean that they aren't real though...which of course makes it hard to be taken seriously by the medical profession. I know...because despite suffering from intensely painful periods (which sometimes required trips to the ER) because I did not have the pathology "endometriosis" that you have, doctors dismissed my pain in a manner similar to your dismissal of mine.

I am so glad to hear that your low carb diet is going well.

and...thanks for giving me some food for thought,

Jenn