Woman, 32, left with missing teeth after taking contraceptive jab

A woman who lost half her teeth due to the contraceptive jab wants to warn others about the dangers of staying on the period-stopping medication for 'too long'. 

Alexandra Hale, 32, was first prescribed the the three-monthly Depo-Provera jab—referred to as Depo by users—in 2015 to stop crippling period pains. 

But after four years on the medication, which is prescribed by the NHS around 10,000 times a month, her teeth became painful and, one-by-one, began crumbling and needed to be extracted.

By 2022, Ms Hale had lost all but one of her molars, and had become self-conscious about smiling or laughing.

Ms Hale, a veterinary care assistant from Manchester, said: 'This is very difficult for me. I cover my mouth now if I laugh in public.

'It's really upsetting - your smile is the first thing people notice about you.

'I can only laugh openly in front of close friends or people who know what has happened to me.

'There's such a stigma about having bad teeth, people always look at me. I worry that they'll think I have bad dental hygiene or take drugs.

 'What happened to me could have been avoided with the right checks.

'I just want people to know that you should always review your health choices.

'Make sure you are aware of side effects. Have an annual review with your doctor.'

Ms Hale started her periods aged 13, but after three years was suffering two days a month of crippling pain, sickness, and headaches at the start of each cycle.

Her periods were very heavy and lasted five days.

Ms Hale said: 'The pain was shocking. I just couldn't get up for two days.

'I was always missing school or college.'

Colleagues at a cinema where she was working in 2014 told Ms Hale they managed period pain using contraceptive implants, pills, or jabs.

Ms Hale didn't want an implant, and finds swallowing pills hard, so her GP, then at Grove Medical Practice in Altrincham, which closed in 2023, prescribed Depo in 2015.

She felt fine on the jabs, and all her period pain went away, she said.

Depo is a progestogen-only injectable, for which the NICE guidelines say: 'The use of the progestogen-only injectable is associated with a small loss of bone-mineral density (BMD) with long-term use (more than one year). However, this is usually recovered after stopping the injection.

'If a woman wishes to use progestogen-only injectable long term, review her every two years to assess the risks and benefits of the injection and to decide whether treatment can be continued.'

The drug works by preventing eggs from being released by a woman’s ovaries. It was first licensed for use on the NHS as a contraceptive over 40 years ago.

Ms Hale claims that she had a six-monthly check in with a nurse who asked how she was and monitored her blood pressure, but she never had a review with a GP and wasn't made aware that there were any risks to bone density with taking Depo.

Apart from one tooth extraction in her teens, and having her wisdom teeth out because they were at a difficult angle, her teeth were in good condition, she said.

But in 2019 Ms Hale began suffering tooth pain that kept her up at night.

Dentists asked about her diet, but she doesn't eat much sugar, brushes and flosses regularly, and has the occasional diet coke, she said.

They put fillings in her teeth, but, starting from the back, her molars kept snapping and, by 2022 they were all extracted except for one on the top right.   

Eventually she lost 14 teeth. 

In 2022, she started to get severe migraines too, for which she had to take time off work.

Ms Hale said: 'We couldn't work out what was going on - it was so weird.'

Online she found other people talking about having migraines and losing teeth while on Depo.

Ms Hale said she went to a GP who confirmed that this can happen, so she switched from Depo to the contraceptive implant.

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When Ms Hale was shopping with a friend in 2024, she told her that you're not supposed to take Depo for more than two years without regular checkups.

She said: 'Everything just came crashing down.

'I was so shocked. I felt really let down.' 

Ms Hale started to research side effects of Depo online and discovered other users with similar symptoms.

She came off the jabs and said her teeth haven't worsened, but she's having to foot the bill for a full set of implants, and is now fundraising for £15,000 to have a full set of dental implants, top and bottom.

She said: 'I've been advised that's what I need because my remaining teeth are so damaged.

'I just wish the NHS could take responsibility for what has happened to me and pay for this.

'If I'd had the proper checks none of this would have happened to me.'

Dr Helen Westwood from Timperley Health Centre, which Alex sees now but was not her GP at the time, said: 'I confirm that the depo injection is associated with a loss of bone mineral density which can affect dental health.

'The bone density usually recovers on stopping depo.

'The NICE guidance advises that the risks and benefits are reviewed every two years.'