Comparative contraceptive experience with three-month and six-month medroxyprogesterone acetate regimens

Three-month (150 mg) and six-month (450 mg) contraceptive regimens of medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) as an intramuscular depot injection are compared in this paper. A total of 19,875 women participated in the study, accounting for 220,530 woman-months of use. A Pearl index of 0.1069 for the three-month regimen was significantly lower than for the six-month group, where the index was 0.4943 (p less than 0.01). Side effects were limited insofar as personal reasons and loss to follow-up were the most important single category for discontinuation of this contraceptive method. No thrombotic incidents occurred. It is concluded that both contraceptive regimens of DMPA appear to be acceptable with regard to use-effectiveness, patient acceptance and prevalence of side effects.