Birth control injection brings increased risk of contracting HIV

WOMEN using the birth control shot Depo- Provera may have about a 30 percent higher risk of contracting HIV, according to new research released yesterday which tells us what the science community knows about this still uncertain link.

Researchers have questioned a possible link between hormonal contraception use and HIV risk since 1991. Only 20 years later did a 2011 study, published in the international medical journal The Lancet and showing that “the shot” doubled women’s risk of both contracting and transmitting the virus, prompt a World Health Organisation review of the evidence. The WHO affirmed the birth control method’s safety, but strongly recommended that women on progesterone- only injections, like Depo-Provera, also use con- doms to prevent HIV infection.

The study also re-fuelled a divisive and sometimes ugly debate within the scientific community, which remains divided on the issue and the evidence.

To wade through the evidence, US University of California Berkley researchers looked at 12 published studies examining possible HIV risk associated with hormonal contraception. According to the research published yesterday in The Lancet, the pooled results of these studies showed that women had about a 30 percent increased risk of contracting HIV when using the injectable hormonal contraception depot medroxprogeterone acetate.

More commonly known by the brand name Depo-Provera, this birth control shot increased likelihood of at-risk women such as sex workers and those in relationships with HIV-positive men by 40 percent, according to lead author Lauren Ralph.

Ralph stressed, however, that her findings should not prompt women to ditch the popular contraception method just yet.

“Although we do observe a moderately increased risk of HIV among Depo users, we don’t feel our findings justify its withdrawal in most settings worldwide,” Ralph said. “Ban- ning Depo would leave many women without access to contraception and, because child birth remains life threatening in many places, this could increase the overall number of deaths among women.”

She added that no studies suggested any increased HIV risk associated with using the injectable contraception Norethisterone enanthate, commonly known as NET-EN.

Instead, Ralph said her results may help mathematical modellers determine what adding or removing the birth control shot from national programmes might mean both for new HIV infections and maternal deaths.

In South Africa, about one in every 1 000 live births results in a mother dying.

Its latest contraception guidelines continue to include the birth control method. – Health-e News