Depo Provera News and Research

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Nepal and Afghanistan show how abrupt aid cuts can unravel essential care

Abrupt cuts to external health aid can destabilize multiple essential services simultaneously in fragile, donor-dependent settings, as illustrated by Nepal and Afghanistan. The paper argues that donor withdrawal is not just a resilience test, but also an ethical and governance issue that should be managed through “transition discipline.”

24 Mar 2026

Self-administered injectable contraceptives face provider hesitancy despite availability

Self-administered injectable contraceptives have been available in the United States for more than two decades, yet a new study has found only about a quarter of reproductive health experts prescribe it - and many are unaware it's even an option.

9 Jan 2026

HHS eliminates CDC staff who made sure birth control is safe for women at risk

For Brianna Henderson, birth control isn’t just about preventing pregnancy.

1 Jul 2025

Study explores cancer risks of hormonal contraceptives

Many women worry hormonal contraceptives have dangerous side-effects including increased cancer risk. But this perception is often out of proportion with the actual risks.

15 Jan 2025

Patient mistrust and poor access hamper federal efforts to overhaul family planning

Two years ago, after an emergency cesarean section at a Mississippi hospital, Sherika Trader was denied a tubal ligation. Trader, now 33, was told that to have her tubes tied, she had to have a second child or a husband's permission, even though she wasn't married.

21 Nov 2022

Texas providers see increased interest in birth control since near-total abortion ban

In September, when Texas' near-total abortion ban took effect, Planned Parenthood clinics in the Lone Star State started offering every patient who walked in information on Senate Bill 8, as well as emergency contraception, condoms and two pregnancy tests. The plan is to distribute 22,000 "empowerment kits" this year.

8 Nov 2021

Contraceptive drug effective in preventing and regressing cervical cancer in mice

A new study in The American Journal of Pathology, published by Elsevier, reports that medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), the active ingredient in the common contraceptive injection Depo-Provera, was effective in preventing the development of cervical cancer in mice with precancerous lesions.

12 Nov 2019

Many young, low-income women may not be able to access birth control methods

Young, low-income women in Canada are less likely to use more effective methods of birth control like the pill, and more likely to use no contraception or condoms only, according to new UBC research.

5 Nov 2019

Climbing cost of decades-old drugs threatens to break Medicaid bank

Skyrocketing price tags for new drugs to treat rare diseases have stoked outrage nationwide. But hundreds of old, commonly used drugs cost the Medicaid program billions of extra dollars in 2016 vs. 2015, a Kaiser Health News data analysis shows.

14 Aug 2017

Self-injection of contraceptive feasible, acceptable among women in sub-Saharan Africa, research reveals

Self-injection of the contraceptive Sayana® Press is both feasible and highly acceptable among women participating in the first such research study conducted in sub-Saharan Africa, according to results published online by the journal Contraception.

16 Nov 2016

Study analyzes pediatric ED visits attributed to injuries due to legal interventions

In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital (UH Rainbow) found injuries related to legal interventions, or contact with law enforcement, involving male teenagers is not an uncommon occurrence in the United States.

23 Oct 2015

New study provides biological explanation for how DMPA increases risk of HIV infection

In recent years, evidence has been building that injectable contraceptive depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (Depo-Provera or DMPA) is associated with an increased risk of HIV infection. Now a study published in the September 1st issue of mBio, an online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, provides a biological explanation for the phenomenon.

2 Sep 2015

Injectable hormonal contraceptive appears to increase HIV risk in women

Women using depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA), commonly known as Depo-Provera or the birth control shot, have a moderately increased risk of becoming infected with HIV, a large meta-analysis of 12 studies involving more than 39 500 women published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases has found. Other forms of hormonal contraception, including oral contraceptive pills, do not appear to increase this risk.

12 Jan 2015

Women using DMPA injection more likely to acquire HIV than women using NET-EN

Women who used an injectable contraceptive called DMPA were more likely to acquire HIV than women using a similar product called NET-EN, according to a secondary analysis of data from a large HIV prevention trial called VOICE, researchers from the National Institutes of Health-funded Microbicide Trials Network reported today at the 21st Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston.

5 Mar 2014

Einstein researchers to develop drug-impregnated intravaginal ring for HIV prevention in women

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have been awarded a $12 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a drug-impregnated intravaginal ring to prevent HIV infection in women.

11 Mar 2013

No definitive link between hormonal contraceptives and increased risk of HIV infection among women, CDC says

"There is no clear link between the use of contraceptives such as the birth control pill or Depo-Provera shots and an increased risk that a woman will contract HIV, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday," Reuters reports, noting that the WHO came to the same conclusion in February.

23 Jun 2012

No added HIV risk with hormonal contraceptives

An HIV prevention trial that pre-dates the shift to antiretroviral (ARV)-based approaches is nonetheless helping to answer some of the most relevant and topical questions the field is facing today.

18 Apr 2012

Breast cancer screening false positive results may need more follow up: Study

A Danish study of more than 58,000 women found those who had false positive mammograms, meaning the results suggested breast cancer when there was none, had a 67 percent higher risk of developing breast cancer later in life compared with women who had negative mammograms.

5 Apr 2012

WHO criticized for not efficiently communicating recommendations on HIV, contraception to African women, PlusNews reports

"HIV organizations, researchers and activists have criticized the WHO and UNAIDS for not clearly communicating guidelines on HIV and hormonal contraception to African women, who remain the most affected by the continent's high HIV prevalence rates," PlusNews reports.

3 Mar 2012

Birth control shot may impair a person's memory

The birth control shot Depo Provera offers a convenient alternative for women who don't want to remember to take a daily pill. Ironically, research from Arizona State University has shown the shot actually may impair a person's memory.

2 Nov 2011