Hormone in birth control shot linked to memory loss

[Felix]

ASU News

http://asunews.asu.edu/20111101_hormones

by Pete Zrioka

The birth control shot offers a convenient alternative to women who don't want to remember to take a daily pill. Ironically, recent research from ASU's Bimonte-Nelson Memory and Aging Laboratory has shown the shot may not be helping memory. In fact, it may be harming it.

The study is currently in press in the journal Psychopharmacology. It 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.


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This is relevant because many FtM's use this drug to suppress menstruation.

[spacial]

So, not good for socially aware rodents then.

But quite a few human women will, no doubt, continue to value it.

[Felix]

I used to take Depo Provera, and if I can't get testosterone soon I'll go back on it. The article doesn't say the drug is dangerous, just shows how it interacts with GABA to change the way we store and retrieve memories.

[Harlan28]

While I communicate the possible side effects of hormonal contraceptives (along with others) and the possibility of contracting diseases and their consequences to my daughters and sons, they are but a small part of the arguement against using their bodies like cheap amusement park rides.
The real arguement should not center around physical or practical consequences but rather the emotional and moral degredation of your 'self' and your values and views of others by engaging in such behavior. Once we have conquered those obsacles (perhaps with better contraceptives) will all be ok? I think not.

I have never heard (although it is possible) someone say "I wish I had a whole lot more sex partners when I was young", but I have heard many say "I wish I hadn't". We've reached a point where this view is laughable, only because we have not lived up to our obligations of communicating these deeper consequences and teaching, educating, loving and being examples.

[Felix]

While I communicate the possible side effects of hormonal contraceptives (along with others) and the possibility of contracting diseases and their consequences to my daughters and sons, they are but a small part of the arguement against using their bodies like cheap amusement park rides.
The real arguement should not center around physical or practical consequences but rather the emotional and moral degredation of your 'self' and your values and views of others by engaging in such behavior. Once we have conquered those obsacles (perhaps with better contraceptives) will all be ok? I think not.

I have never heard (although it is possible) someone say "I wish I had a whole lot more sex partners when I was young", but I have heard many say "I wish I hadn't". We've reached a point where this view is laughable, only because we have not lived up to our obligations of communicating these deeper consequences and teaching, educating, loving and being examples.

What? Harlan, are you sure you're in the right forum? This post didn't say anything about sex practices or the morality of promiscuity or anything like that. It's about a certain form of birth control and its possible short- and long-term effects on the female body.

[spacial]

I can understand the point Harlan is making. The need for contraceptives and their use, can create the behaviours where the need for contraceptives emerges. The long term effects are upon the psyche and self esteme of the individual, when they realise they've used their bodies like cheap amusement park rides. (Like that analogy by the way).

It's an interesting point. That so much research is being done, continually, into contraceptives and their effect, yet we barely question their necessity.

Huge amounts are put into the createion and improvement of various contraceptives, yet practically none into the need to use them continually.

The continual use tends to create the season tickety mentality about sexual availability.

[Felix]

Most transmen I know who use Depo Provera do not use it for birth control. It stops periods. I've had tubal ligation, and I cannot get pregnant, don't need birth control. I still plan to go back to taking injections of this drug if I don't get prescribed testosterone soon, because having periods contributes to intense dysphoria. So the long-term effects of the medication are important.

[spacial]

Understand Felix.

The two aspects to the situation are both facinating. Thank you for making the points clear.