Birth Control Shot Linked to Bone Density Loss in Girls, Women

Half of the millions of American women and girls who have received the birth control shot will develop loss of bone density in the hip or lower spine, according to a new U.S. study.

More than two million American women, including about 400,000 teens, have gotten depot medroxyprogesterone acetate, the injected contraceptive also known as DMPA or Depo-Provera for short. Many women prefer the injected form of birth control because the doses last for three months and free users from having to rely on daily pills, patches, or other forms of contraceptives.

Scientists from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston followed 95 DMPA recipients for a period of two years. During that time, 45 of the women suffered at least a five-percent loss of bone mineral density in the lower back or hip, according to a UPI news report. Fifty women in the study had bone loss that was less than five percent.

Bone mineral density loss was higher in women who were current smokers, had never given birth, or had a daily calcium intake of 600 mg or less, which is well below the recommended amounts, according to the study. Women who had all three of those risk factors were at “substantial” risks of bone loss.

Another troubling finding from the study, which is set to be published in the January issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology, was that women who experienced significant bone mineral density loss during the two-year study continued to see bone loss for at least another year.

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