Background & Objective: Depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) is an injectable contraceptive method that is widely used by 68 million women in over 114 countries and was reported Different medical and non medical reasons were reported for discontinuation of DMPA use. Due to little information about continuation rate and reasons for discontinuations of DMPA in this region and because of the different result of the research in other countries this study was designed. to evaluate the use of DMPA�including continuation rate and side effects.

  Methods: In this cross sectional retrospective study 396 DMPA user women referring to health care centers in Ardabil were selected through classified sampling. The data were collected by a questionnaire by interviewing the subjects and data were analyzed by SPSS software using analysis variance (ANOVA) and correlation and T-test.

  Results: The mean age of the study population was 32±7.8 years, 33.8% had primary education and the majority of the users were housewives (%95) and only20 (%5) were employed. 6, 9, 12 and 24 month cumulative continuation rate of DMPA were recorded as %44.5, %26.5, %18.2 and %2.3 respectively. The most common reason for discontinuation among all of groups was amenorrhea. The most common side effects were amenorrhea (%69.7), low back pain (%13.4), and weight gain (%13.4) and headache (%10.4). There was a significant corvelation belween education level and spouse's education level, spouse's job, family income, grariding, number of off spring, type of previous delivery and continuity of DMPA (p<0.05).

  Conclusion: The result of this study could help health authorities and care givers in term of correct counseling and follow up. This factor could result in more satisfaction and improve continuation rate of DMPA.