Adolescents Who Are Obese

Recent estimates place the prevalence of obesity in adolescent women at approximately 18 %. Thus, providing contraception for adolescents and young women who are obese represents an increasingly common clinical scenario. Unfortunately, there is little research regarding hormonal contraceptive efficacy in obese adult women and almost no research which includes adolescents. While all contraceptives appear to be safe in obese teens, studies of hormonal contraceptives in adults suggest efficacy may be slightly impaired with increasing weight for the combined oral contraceptive pill and the transdermal contraceptive patch. Most contraceptives are not associated with weight gain; however, there may be a subset of adolescents who are susceptible to weight gain with depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA).