Depo Provera
By Kath Gelber
The Australian government has just approved the legal marketing of a highly controversial drug, Depo Provera, as a contraceptive. Until now, Depo Provera has been able to be marketed as a treatment for conditions such as endometrial cancer, and doctors were permitted to prescribe it as a contraceptive.
A recent report by Professor Ian Fraser, of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Sydney, in the Medical Journal of Australia called for approval to market the drug as a contraceptive on the basis that extensive research had shown it to be safe and highly effective.
The drug is used as a contraceptive by means of an injection which lasts three months.
Depo Provera has been heavily criticised in the past for its dangers to women. Problems cited include rapid weight gain, depression, haemorrhage and, in extreme cases, kidney and gall bladder problems.
Criticism of the drug as a contraceptive has focused on its primary use in underdeveloped countries and within Aboriginal communities in Australia. The accusation has been made that, in the name of international aid programs, it is forced on women who already have few choices about their lives.
These women's reproductive capacity has become the focus of programs which aim to "curb population growth" as a solution to problems such as poverty and unemployment, rather than addressing the social issues that cause such problems.
The use of Depo Provera as a contraceptive was banned by the United States Food and Drug Administration in 1991, based on the recommendations of a public board of inquiry composed of three independent medical experts. The board was established at the request of the drug company which manufactures Depo Provera, Upjohn. At that time it concluded that "no adequate studies show long term safety associated with the use of Depo Provera".
Evidently the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration has seen new evidence to the contrary. It makes you wonder just who these latest tests have been done on, who has provided this new research that demonstrates "safety" and "efficacy".
Upjohn has clearly invested a lot of money in research of this drug. To be able to market it as a contraceptive in a country like Australia brings prestige and acceptability to a drug as controversial as this. The longer term effects on women in this country remain to be seen.