Hey all, welcome back to the Real Life Pharmacology podcast. I am your host, Eric Christensen.

And on this episode, I'm going to cover medroxy progesterone acetate, sometimes referred to as

Deppop Provera, as brand name, or DMPA for an abbreviation there as well.

So I'm going to specifically kind of stick to the injection here in this episode and the one

obviously specifically for contraceptive purposes.

So this drug is a progestin-only contraceptive method. It is injection. I mentioned that.

And this injection is given every three months. And that certainly can be advantageous for some patients that really aren't very good at remembering to take medications,

or they just don't want to worry about it and don't want the hassle of taking a once-daily contraceptive.

So we don't obviously worry about adherence quite as much in these type of patients.

However, sticking on the theme of adherence, we do need to remember that patients need to

come in and get this on a regular basis.

Obviously, a three-month routine there.

And, you know, I always educate patients that there's no medication that is absolutely 100%, you know, perfect as far as contraception goes.

But obviously, as long as patients are getting their routine injection,

the risk for pregnancy is extremely, extremely low.

Adverse effect profile?

Well, first, let's cover mechanism of action.

So how does this prevent pregnancy?

So the drug inhibits gonadotropin release from the pituitary. And so if you remember that, by blocking that, that can actually, those gonadotropins are

necessary for ovulation and follicular maturation, things of that nature.

And so by blocking that release of those gonadotropins, what you ultimately do is prevent

ovulation, which is necessary,

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