Birth control shot

New trend: Birth control shot. Convenient alternative for women who do not want to remember to take the daily pill, however, research shows that the pill may be doing more damage than good. On November 1, 2011 an article posted in ScienceDaily, connects medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), the hormone active in the birth control shot Depo Provera, and many widely used menopausal hormone therapies, to impaired memory in rodents. The Bimonte-Nelson lab first linked MPA to memory loss in rats while studying it as a component of hormone therapy for menopause. The study lasted approximately a year, using three groups of rats, plus a control group that did not receive the hormone. The first group only received MPA as young adults, to model birth control. The second only received it post-menopausal to model hormone therapy. The third group received it at both young adulthood and maturity, to model women who used it for birth control and as a post-menopausal hormone therapy. Results showed that animals that had been given the drug at any point in their life were memory impaired at middle age compared to animals that never had the drug. One of the lead researchers stated, “You really cannot understand aging without understanding menopause or reproductive senescence, because hormones change as aging ensues. As well, you cannot talk about aging and cognition and gain insight into those dynamic and interrelated changes without acknowledging that both hormones and aging have such a profound effect on the brain and its function.” This study is currently in process and results are pending.


Researcherss Blair Braden and Heather Bimonte-Nelson in the lab.