If a woman has trouble remembering to take oral contraceptives or can't use them because of certain medical problems, and she doesn't want to use an implant because of its long-term effects, contraceptive injections offer another alternative. Two such products are now available, the new Lunelle Injection and the more established Depo-Provera Contraceptive Injection.

Depo-Provera was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for endometrial and kidney cancer in the early 1970s, but it took nearly 20 years of research to convince the agency to approve it as a contraceptive. Officials at the FDA were concerned about studies linking the drug to breast cancer, low birth-weight babies, and osteoporosis (brittle bones).