Health
Contraception risk of STDs
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Sept. 13, 2004
Women who used the injectable contraceptive depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate, marketed under the name Depo Provera, had a greater risk of acquiring sexually transmitted diseases than women who did not use the hormonal contraceptive, according to a new study.
Researchers determined that women who used Depo Provera were 3.5 times more likely to develop either a chlamydial or gonococcal infection. The researchers also tested oral contraceptives containing both estrogen and progestin and concluded that oral contraceptives do not appear to significantly increase the risk of infections.
The study was unable to determine why the risk increased among Depo Provera users. "The findings underscore the need to counsel all sexually active women who use DMPA and who are not in mutually monogamous relationships to use condoms consistently and correctly," said study author Charles Morrison, PhD, senior epidemiologist at Family Health International in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina.
The 819 participants were recruited from a Baltimore city clinic, which served predominantly African-American people and a clinic in Towson, Md., which served predominantly white, college-age women.
The results appeared in the September Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/09/13/hlbf0913.htm.
