Comment on: “#DepoProvera, an Analysis of the Most Popular TikTok Videos About Medroxyprogesterone Acetate”

TikTok is a social media platform using short-form videos, and a large percentage of individuals (34%) aged 18 to 27 use it as their main source of health advice. Previous studies of the impact of TikTok on the dissemination of knowledge about contraception have shown wide variability in accuracy, and though some content is made by health care professionals, many creators emphasize personal experience. The accuracy of social media content surrounding injectable depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) has not yet been characterized. This study was designed to describe the content, quality, and nature of information in the most popular TikTok videos tagged #depo and/or #DepoProvera. Using these 2 tags, the top 100 most-viewed TikTok videos, their comments, likes, and data were downloaded and compiled using Apify. Inclusion criteria for videos were being publicly available and relevant to DMPA. Videos were assessed in the aspects of creator (medical professional or layperson), tone (positive, negative, or neutral), primary intent (experience, education, humor), and medical information about mechanism, side effects, efficacy, or clinical guidance (evaluated using the DISCERN score). The top 100 videos included in this study had a cumulative 64 million views, 7.3 million likes, and 216,000 shares. The majority of videos were classified as having a negative tone (60%), with only a few classified as having a positive tone (6%). Most content creators were female-presenting and between the ages of 20 and 29. A total of 64% of creators were laypeople, and 52% of videos focused on personal experiences. Most discussed side effects, but only 43 provided medical information. Videos created by medical professionals had significantly higher DISCERN scores compared with other content creators ( P =0.005). These results emphasize the overall negative social media perception of DMPA, which is consistent with other studies of social media content surrounding contraception. Both the amount of content creators who are medical professionals and the quality of medical information can vary by platform, with YouTube tending to host a higher proportion of content by medical professionals compared with TikTok (60% vs. 28%, respectively). Social media use can have a huge impact on individuals’ health decision-making, and future research should be targeted at improving the quality of health information available on TikTok and raising awareness of the quality of medical information found on social media. This awareness can also assist clinicians in counseling patients and being aware of the factors surrounding their decisions and preferences. (Summarized from Wolf C, Chen L, Black B, et al. #DepoProvera, An analysis of the most popular TikTok videos about medroxyprogesterone acetate. Contraception. 2026;154:111256. doi: 10.1016/j.contraception.2025.111256).