Pregnancy & Baby 

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Depo-Provera contraceptive injection

Dear Sal
Thanks for your email: I assume you’re talking about the Depo-Provera contraceptive injection. The answer to your question depends on how long you were on the injection, and just what bleeding/period regularity you had before you started.
If you are now ‘unprotected’, then you could, of course, become pregnant before you see a loss at all. There is no reason to wait for the first ovulation/bleed to occur.

Injection is a reversible birth control method, working by preventing ovulation for up to 12 weeks after a single injection. Unfortunately, irregular bleeding is a very common side effect in some women, and may even change to become ‘no bleeding at all’. After their last injection, most women who manage to become pregnant, do so within a year, but for some pregnancy may take longer. This is usually because there is a residual suppression of ovulation – with periods remaining more irregular than those that existed before the injection was started.

I wish you well

Dr Howard Lee

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