Urgent call for expansion of Contraceptive Method Mix amidst the unanswered question of whether Depo-Provera increases HIV acquisition.
Today, the International Community of Women Living with HIV Eastern Africa (ICWEA) joins Reproductive Health Leaders and Partners from all over the World in commemorating the World Contraception Day, 2016 (WCD). ICWEA reiterates a call to World Health Organisation (WHO), Pharmaceutical Companies, Private Foundations, Policy Makers, Governments, and FP 2020 Partner Countries and other partners at all levels to respond to the unmet Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights and family planning needs of women and girls in all our diversity.
Since the release of the findings of Heffron et al Study in October 2011, suggesting the possibility that progestogen-only contraceptives may increase risk of acquiring HIV, ICWEA in collaboration with AVAC, the HIV prevention advocates, reproductive health service providers, Women Advocates and Women living with HIV from all over the world have been following the debates & discussions on this critical issue at all levels.
We remain concerned that since 2012, WHO has not revised the recommendation of no restrictions on the use of any hormonal contraceptive method for women at high risk of HIV or those living with HIV due to the inconclusive nature of the body of evidence. Our concern gets even more compounded by the new review carried out by Chelsea Polis et al, 2016, of evidence on Hormonal Contraceptive methods especially the intramuscular depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA), an injectable contraceptive most commonly sold as Depo-Provera, which heightens existing concerns about a possible increase in risk of HIV acquisition in women who use the method.
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