Depo-provera, week one

[marydell]

So I got the shot on Friday.  I got the full-strength shot, figuring that if I get the weaker shot and it doesn't stop the pain, I'll have to try the stronger shot before I know if this is the right path, whereas if I get the stronger shot and it does help, but I don't like the side effects, I still have the weaker one as an option.  Basically I just don't want to screw around with this any more.

Five days in, my experience is probably meaningless, but I'm going to record it anyway because it may be useful for some other woman, including for future-me, who probably will forget this stage of things.

Good:  I've been cheerful. Probably because of having a sense of progress, rather than for anything hormonal, but maybe it's the shot. My energy is much better, and my appetite is less--probably because I eat constantly to fuel up, and I don't feel tired most of the time now. This has got to be the shot; I've been doing a whole lot of stuff I'm normally too fatigued for.  I hadn't thought of the regular tiredness as a problem, because I have a fairly sedentary job, but the doctor didn't like it and has sent me for a thyroid test just in case.

Bad: I've had a headache or two. I've been unreasonably sleepy, although that's passing.  Sleepy as distinct from tired--if I hop up off the couch and go do something, I'm fine and have plenty of energy, but if I sit still I get snoozy. And I'm very VERY achey today--my neck & shoulders are really stiff, which has been coming on for a couple of days.  This is partly because of being more active suddenly (a lot of my activity involves slinging Charlie over my shoulder), but I also think it's the shot.

Neutral:  I'm craving red meat.  I normally eat it pretty often anyway, but I suddenly am craving protein in general and red meat in particular, rather than carbs and more carbs, which is my usual staple food.  Not that I don't still want carbs. But I'm thinking about what to have for lunch and "steak and eggs" is kind of obsessing me. Even though I'm allergic to eggs. So, I've started taking a multivitamin but I can see I'll need to figure out some kind of proper nutrition, food-wise.  Depo-provera lowers your good cholesterol and raises your bad cholesterol, and mine is already bad, so I need to try to keep my steak ratio fairly low.

Fot those who've had provera side-effects (i.e. anyone who's ever taken it), did they start right away?  I assume they are going to build over time but I'm not sure when I should expect the bigger stuff to hit me.  Presumably it'll depend on what the stuff actually does to my period, combined with the weird hormones I seem to have naturally.

Comments

[cathshaffer.livejournal.com]

I had one shot of it, ever. I gained a few pounds which at the time upset me and in retrospect I laugh at. A month after I had the shot, I started spotting, and had intermittent spotting and bleeding for the next five months. I was told that if I'd gotten another shot on schedule, my body would have adapted. I didn't have any cramps with the bleeding, it wasn't a real period. There are different types of synthetic progesterones, and I think the one in depo just doesn't agree with me. I had a bad experience with the pill, too, so I gave up on hormones completely. I really hope this works for you. If not, did you know that you can eliminate periods using regular oral contraceptives? I think there is even a pill on the market that is labeled as such, although doctors have been doing this off-label for a long time.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

"Seasonale" is a 4-period-a-year pill, I think, and yeah, you can use 'em continuously to stop a period, too, if you're eligible to take the regular pill. My doctor took me off the normal pill mid-cycle a few years ago after she looked at my BP, so there went that option!

[cathshaffer.livejournal.com]

Aw, shoot!

[bramblekite.livejournal.com]

hi, I found your LJ thru reading freyapax's friends list.

I was on Depo Provera for 9 years. I had what I guess you could call 'morning sickness'--very mild nausea in the mornings for the first few days after the first 2 or 3 injections, and my period stopped, but other than that, I was fine.

What messeed me up was going OFF the depo after 9 years. I got very depressed and gained 30 lbs. yucko.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Sometimes when I really want steak and am worrying about my good cholesterol, a slab of a dark-fleshed fish like tuna satisfies the craving while also bearing good omega-3 fats.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

This reminds me that when I was on Camila I constantly wanted fish...like, to the point that I had to stop myself from eating it more than 5 times a week. (I have a good sushi place nearby that delivers. Expensive habit!) At the time I assumed I had a mercury deficiency that I was trying to make up.

Also, I went to the grocery this morning to get a steak and ended up buying 3 kinds of fish as well, so I suspect there is something to what you say. It beats sprinkling cheerios on my steaks.

[pnkrokhockeymom.livejournal.com]

I had side-effects, but they were all of the "WHOA ASTHMA ATTACK DAMN CALL 911" variety. I was too ill with my asthma back then both generally and from the shots to remember if I had headaches.

I was supposed to do 2 shots over six months, but my doctor nixed the second shot due to the sudden increase in zero to 180 asthma attacks in the middle of the night (no warning, no build-up).

I had endometriosis.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Eeek! Poor you, that sucks! My allergies tend to get a little crazy when I'm on hormones, but since I did my course of allergy shots they're manageable with meds. And my asthma is pretty minor, mercifully. Um, right now, that is.

Did you find anything that helped with the endo? I don't have a particularly good alternate plan just yet, if the provera doesn't work out.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I just went looking through my archives to see if I could find the relation between the shot and starting to bleed. I remember it as being within a few days of each other, though.

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

I can't really remember how fast the side effects appeared, but I think I'd have stopped after a single shot if they'd turned up at full force immediately. I know that I was low in oestrogen when they finally tested me after six months or so, and I imagine that would have taken a while to happen. The ME/CFIDS got worse and worse in a gradual way, but then that's the normal pattern for ME relapses (although the level at which it got worse wasn't, going from dancing to wheelchair in six months is way beyond anything I've experienced before or since). My periods stopped immediately (they're naturally light so that was the most likely thing to happen), and my menstrual migraines also stopped immediately. Hair loss I think took a month or so to kick in, and I honestly can't remember about the other menopausal-type symptoms.

Fatigue is very hard to pin down, it's so difficult to know what's normal. I presume that they keep an eye on you for anaemia since you have endo? Could it simply be new-parent-exhaustion, or has that settled down by now?

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Thanks--that sucks SO MUCH, to take something you thought would be useful and have it accelerate your ME. I'm sorry you went through that. The estrogen lowering is apparently part of the effect of the progesterone, and can lead to bad stuff if it gets too low--I'll have to look out for any heart trouble--but if the estrogen is out of whack to begin with, it can help, in theory. We shall see.

I didn't really think of myself as having fatigue, per se, because it doesn't interfere with work and is something I can push through, if I'm motivated. I just figured I had gradually become a couch potato, like every American my age. But the doctor characterized it as mild fatigue, and I guess that fits. I've always felt tired for part of my cycle, and it's been about 10 years since I felt really peppy...pretty much coinciding with my endo getting a lot worse in my 30s. No anemia, fortunately, but maybe my thyroid is out of whack despite regular testing.

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

It was mainly poor management by the Family Planning Clinic, in the days before Depo was known to be troublesome with side effects. They wouldn't dream of putting me on it now. From what I recall, low oestrogen can happen with some people but doesn't sound all that common, and if yours is high to begin with then it's less likely to be a problem, of course. As long as they know what to watch out for you should be able to keep an eye on it. It should be tweakable. I know there's a trend for treating PMDD and menopausal symptoms with Mirena plus adding back a little oestrogen, for instance, so presumably they can mess around with the exact hormones you're getting if need be.

Thyroid is meant to be a tricky one, you hear all sorts of stories of "ah but the conventional tests don't show up problems properly".

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Yes to the thyroid stories - unfortunately 90% of the sites I've found that say "tests don't work" are also selling something :) but in my case I suspect the energy thing is more hormonal than thyroidal. But maybe the test will turn something up. Everyone I know who's on thyroid meds has an obvious reason like "I had half of my thyroid removed" or similar.

Endometrial implants/growths react to estrogen, and also can (creepily) produce their own pseudo-estrogen, so estrogen becomes a villain when it's normally a good thing.

(There are sites that talk about "estrogen dominance theory" but 100% of them are totally selling stuff, and I can't find any scientific reference to the theory. It's one of those "Dr. so-and-so talks about his theory" and on the sidebar is an advert for "Dr. so-and-so's anti-estrogen creme" kind of things. )

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

I've waded through the thyroid stuff and the oestrogen stuff as well, it's a right nuisance, isn't it. My mother's got low thryoid and is on stuff for it, but hers showed up with the conventional tests, and I think it might be related to all the stuff caused by having breast cancer and then lymphoedema in her case.

I'm not suggesting that you have ME, but I do know that energy levels and general state of health in ME respond strongly to hormone levels (e.g. a lot of women feel better while pregnant), so it wouldn't surprise me if a hormonal imbalance could cause fatigue in other women as well.

I wonder how many of the weight gain problems reported with Depo are direct, and how many are indirect (i.e. caused by increased hunger)?

[marydell.livejournal.com]

I think the weight gain is Depo is probably from metabolic changes, since so many women report gaining wait in spite of eating the same or less. Since hormones seem to regulate metabolism, it makes sense to me that it would do that.