Provera

What you should know before using

Allergies

Tell your doctor if you have ever had any unusual or allergic reaction to medicines in this group or any other medicines. Also tell your health care professional if you have any other types of allergies, such as to foods dyes, preservatives, or animals. For non-prescription products, read the label or package ingredients carefully.

Pediatrics

Progestins have been used by teenagers and have not been shown to cause different side effects or problems than they do in adults. You must take progestin-only oral contraceptives every day in order for them to work. Progestins do not protect against sexually transmitted diseases, a risk factor for teenagers. It is not known if Depo-Provera Contraceptive Injection causes problems with bone development and growth in teenagers and young women. It is important that your doctor check you regularly for growth problems, especially if you have been using this medicine for 2 years or longer.

Geriatric

This medicine has been tested and has not been shown to cause different side effects or problems in older people than it does in younger adults.

Use of progestin-only contraceptives during pregnancy is not recommended. Doctors should be told if pregnancy is suspected. When accidently used during pregnancy, progestins used for contraception have not caused problems.

Breast Feeding

Although progestins pass into the breast milk, the low doses of progestins used for contraception have not been shown to cause problems in nursing babies. Progestins used for contraception are recommended for nursing mothers when contraception is desired.

Drug Interactions

Using medicines in this class with any of the following medicines is usually not recommended, but may be required in some cases. If both medicines are prescribed together, your doctor may change the dose or how often you use one or both of the medicines.

• Fosamprenavir
• Isotretinoin
• Theophylline

Other Interactions

Certain medicines should not be used at or around the time of eating food or eating certain types of food since interactions may occur. Using alcohol or tobacco with certain medicines may also cause interactions to occur. The following interactions have been selected on the basis of their potential significance and are not necessarily all-inclusive.

Other Medical Problems

The presence of other medical problems may affect the use of medicines in this class. Make sure you tell your doctor if you have any other medical problems, especially:

• Asthma or
• Epilepsy (or history of) or
• Heart or circulation problems or
• Kidney disease (severe) or
• Migraine headaches—Progestins may cause fluid build-up and may cause these conditions to become worse.

• Bleeding problems, undiagnosed, such as blood in urine or changes in vaginal bleeding—May make diagnosis of these problems more difficult.

• Breast disease (such as breast lumps or cysts) (history of)—May make this condition worse in certain types of diseases that do not react in a positive way to progestins.

• Central nervous system (CNS) disorders, such as mental depression (or history of) or
• High blood cholesterol—Effects of progestins may cause these conditions or may make these conditions worse.

• Diabetes mellitus (sugar diabetes)—May cause a mild increase in your blood sugar and a need to change the amount of medicine you take for diabetes.

• Liver disease—Effects of some progestins may be increased and may worsen this condition.

• Other conditions that increase the chances for osteoporosis (brittle bones)—Since it is possible that certain doses of progestins may cause temporary thinning of the bones by changing your hormone balance, it is important that your doctor know if you have an increased risk of osteoporosis. Some things that can increase your risk for having osteoporosis include cigarette smoking, abusing alcohol, taking or drinking large amounts of caffeine, and having a family history of osteoporosis or easily broken bones. Some medicines, such as glucocorticoids (cortisone-like medicines) or anticonvulsants (seizure medicine), can also cause thinning of the bones. It is especially important that you tell your doctor about any of these risk factors if you are taking Depo-Provera Contraceptive Injection or depo-subQ provera 104. This contraceptive may cause loss of bone mineral density. Your doctor may replace this contraceptive with a different one. However, it is thought that progestins can help protect against osteoporosis in postmenopausal women.