Injectable contraception: issues and opportunities

Beginning in the 1960s depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) injectable contraception has been widely used in family planning programs abroad especially in Africa and Southeast Asia [1]. Approved in the US for the treatment of endometrial cancer in the mid-1960s it was also used off-label for contraception [2]. In 1992 DMPA received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for contraception and began to have a noticeable impact in preventing unintended pregnancies in the US particularly among teens. By 2002 some 2 million US women used injectable contraception [3]. Whereas US teen births increased 23% from 1986 peaking in 1991 rates then declined 35% by 2005 [4]. The authors of the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) reported that “Teens were more likely in 2002 to use contraception at first sex and at most recent sex than in 1995 and were more likely to have used highly effective methods such as injectable contraception” [5]. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.