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Today is May 29, 2020. There’s lots of things going on in the world & a lot today. But I would be remiss if I did not remind you of another reason why today is significant. It’s also why I as a physician am extremely glad we yanked @WHO’s funding. If you look at this decision on
the surface, you might be inclined to feel sorry for this organization which purports to be concerned about global public health. The truth is they have become corrupted by money & special interests/agendas. So this is a long time coming. But back to May 29th.
Specifically, May 29th, 2015, 5 years ago. A Citizen’s Petition was filed with the @US_FDA; a petition submitted specifically to request the Commissioner of the FDA to issue, amend or revoke a regulation or order or to take another form of administrative action against a drug.
Most of you know that Depo Provera already contains a Black Box warning for bone loss & recommends not using it for more than two years due to this warning (although this warning is often not given to patients & is routinely ignored by administering HCPs): http://rebeccaprojectjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/depo_provera_fda_warnings-3.pdf
In fact ACOG tried to petition the FDA to get rid of the Black Box warning for bone loss because it would needlessly limit women’s “choices.” It was denied.
My friend @KwameFosuGlobal petitioned the FDA for 3 years to add breast cancer to the risks after this important paper was published: http://rebeccaprojectjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/cancer_depoprovera_doubles_breast_cancer_risk-4.pdf. He was successful.
In addition, @KwameFosuGlobal & Elaine Riddick (herself a victim of forced sterilization) & the @rebeccaproject for justice published a scathing report about human rights injustices perpetuated on women of color for population control, specifically Depo. http://rebeccaprojectjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/depo-provera-deadly-reproductive-violence-rebecca-project-for-human-rights-2013-3.pdf
As a result of the accusation of large wealthy people & organizations using Depo as a form of deadly reproductive violence against women, particularly women of color, @KwameFosuGlobal, a human rights attorney, was attacked & professionally smeared.
Meanwhile, academic research had been indicating since the 1990s, that women who used Depo as a contraceptive seemed to have higher rates of HIV acquisition. Multiple scientists, physicians & epidemiologists have speculated as to why, most citing vaginal atrophy as the cause.
You can imagine why this would be more obvious of a problem in regions with high rates of HIV, like Africa. In the early 2000s when HIV was ravaging Africa, USAID & other global orgs cried about having a hard time getting HIV drugs into Africa. Nelson Mandela called this
“Medical Apartheid.” Amazingly, they seemed to have absolutely no problem getting million of units of Depo Provera into the country at the exact same time. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until 2011 that a widely reported study showed Depo use was associated with double the risk of HIV.
This really put WHO in a tough position because they REALLY love Depo. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/health/04hiv.html
The WHO wanted to continue to keep Depo as a Level I contraceptive. The WHO’s Medical Eligibility Criteria is supposed to provide guidance for various medical conditions, such as diabetes or higher risk for HIV. Level 1 means there’s no restrictions on the drug. You know who
else really LOVES Depo & claims women are begging for it? https://www.newsweek.com/melinda-gates-new-crusade-investing-billions-womens-health-64965
By now, scientists were starting to figure out that Depo directly affects the immune system through the glucocorticoid receptor. Which like other steroid drugs, also explains its side effects of bone loss & weight gain. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0062895
This sent the Family Planning orgs into a Panic! After all the observational studies indicating increased HIV risk, they STILL formulated a self-injectable form of Depo called Sayana Press, calling it a “game-changer”. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24703826/
By 2015, there were three meta-analyses showing increased risk for HIV in Depo users. Of course, immediately, the chant was: “correlation does not imply causation” & “we need a randomized trial” to PROVE this is a real issue before we “harm women” by depriving them of Depo and
that might also lead to unsafe abortions. So they immediately kicked into high gear planning the ECHO trial (Evidence for Contraceptive Options and HIV Outcomes). Meanwhile, the only Depo researcher willing to speak the truth about these results was @DrBrind & his colleagues:
“It seems to us that the ongoing use of [Depo], without including substantial warnings to women using it about the increased HIV risk, may essentially constitute a very large scale study that is already violative of patients’ right to give informed consent m. Policymakers and
practitioners should incorporate this knowledge accordingly, to ensure that a woman’s right to make informed choices about her reproductive and general health is protected, and not subordinated to public policy concerns about population control.” #BOOM
Other activities & academicians were concerned about the population control flavor of the Depo problem. Betsy Hartmann of Hampshire Colege has been very outspoken as has Marion Stevens, of the University of Cape Town’s African Gender Institute. But back to May 29th.
On May 29th, 2015, Dr Heidi Jones, a professor at CUNY School of Public Health Policy to ask that the FDA change their prescribing information to reflect the increased risk of HIV.
Here’s my comment of the FDA Open Docket on this Citizen’s Petition.
In 2017, Traci Johnstone, a women whose health was decimated by Depo & I wrote a book called @dangersofdepo about all this. We haven’t made any money but it was not to make money but to educate the public & women who may be prescribed (or are prescribing) Depo.
This is already way too long, but I want you to ask yourself: why hasn’t the FDA responded to this issue in FIVE YEARS? In November of 2015, the FDA sent Dr Jones an Interim Letter that her Petition raised “complex issues.”
One could speculate that the powerful special interests were waiting for the ECHO trial to be published, so they could say, “see we don’t need to worry about Depo & HIV.” As if one study with NO CONTROL GROUP could negate 30 years of research. But they are looking to protect Depo
at all costs. https://sites.hampshire.edu/popdev/files/2019/11/DT-94.pdf I’m not the only one saying it:
Although we agree on this topic, they won’t stand with Dr Brind, Mr Fosu & I because of their sacred cow of abortion, otherwise we could join forces for truth-telling. But this concludes why I’m weary & Leary of organizations like the WHO, USAID, PPFA & FDA. @dangersofdepo
