‘I have an inoperable brain tumour after having the contraceptive jab’

A mother of two lives with excruciating pain caused by an inoperable brain tumor that she believes was triggered by taking a birth control injection.

Lauren Lewington, from Bangor in North Wales, had been using the Depo-Provera birth control pill for 15 years. Since then, he has developed facial numbness and severe painful headaches.

“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t cry,” said Mrs Lewington Independent. “I spend my nights awake worrying about what the tumor might do while I sleep.”

The 35-year-old is one of nearly 100 women in the UK who are taking legal action against pharmaceutical giant Pfizer over the link between medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), a progesterone hormone contraceptive called Depo-Provera, and benign brain tumours.

A study published in the journal British Medical Journal In 2024, it was found that women who used the injection for at least a year were 5.6 times more likely to develop meningioma brain tumors; In the same year, the patient information leaflet was updated with the risk.

Ms Lewington began experiencing earaches and intense headaches in July 2022; His doctor said it could be migraine. Later, on her son’s ninth birthday, she recalls feeling as if she had been “hit in the head with a baseball bat,” causing excruciating pain.

“It felt like my head was going to pop off my shoulders,” said Miss Lewington, who recalled falling to the ground in pain when she arrived at A&E.

In the following months, he visited the hospital sometimes twice a week, often with headaches so severe that he could not walk.

Eventually, a CT scan in December 2022 revealed that he had a meningioma, a type of non-cancerous brain tumor.

The tumor begins in the layers of tissue covering the brain and spinal cord. It can cause seizures, changes in vision, hearing loss and headaches, according to Cancer Research.

Although it was not cancerous, subsequent scans showed that his tumor was growing by 1 mm per month. He suffered damage to his nerves associated with one of the most severe types of pain known to medicine, called “suicide pain” because it is unbearable.

By the time he had surgery in January 2023, his condition had become so severe that he could not properly care for his two sons, aged 12 and 9, who are both autistic. Her husband, Aaron Edwards, quit his job to care for her and their children.

After two surgeries, doctors were unable to safely remove the remainder of the tumor due to its location around critical blood vessels, and the woman underwent radiotherapy.

“They told me they couldn’t take any more because it was too dangerous,” he said. “It’s very sad to know that I will never be able to get rid of the tumor.”

She learned about the possible connection between her tumor and hormonal contraception after the last surgery. Testing revealed that her tumor was 80 percent progesterone receptor positive, and she was told to stop birth control immediately.

Since January 2025, when the injection was stopped, scans showed evidence of the tumor shrinking. He said he wants to see Depo-Provera on shelves now.

“I’m angry, I’m sad. I don’t want anyone else to go through what my family and I went through,” he said.

Deana, who is also considering filing a lawsuit against Pfizer, has been using Depo-Provera injection for more than 25 years. He is now blind in his left eye and suffers painful headaches after developing several inoperable brain tumors.

The 43-year-old young man, who did not want to share his surname, first went to the optician in May 2018 because his left eye was not open. They said there was something wrong with his optic nerve and he was transferred to the hospital where he was diagnosed with meningioma. Years later, in 2024, she learned about the possible connection to the birth control injection.

“I had an injection for my period pain; it was a known fact that it would help reduce the pain, and it did. But it feels like they let me down because now I have to live with this for the rest of my life,” she said. Independent.

Lisa Lunt, partner at Fletchers Solicitors, is backing Deana and Miss Lewington, along with around 100 other women who fear they have been affected by the Depo-Provera vaccine.

“Many women told us that they were unaware of the possible risks of long-term exposure to certain hormonal contraceptives,” she said. Independent.

“For women who have memory loss or are disfigured by craniotomy, have epilepsy, or have cognitive changes and vision problems, this is life-changing.”

The UK medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), has said that the safety of MPA and other synthetic forms of progesterone is under ongoing review and that further regulatory action will be considered if new information is identified.

The MHRA’s chief security officer, Dr. Alison Cave said: “Patient safety is our top priority. For the majority of people, the benefits of Depo-Provera outweigh the risks, but we would advise anyone with any concerns to speak to their GP, pharmacist or contraceptive provider.”

A Pfizer spokesperson emphasized that “patient safety is our top priority” and said Depo-Provera “has an established efficacy and safety profile.”

“In collaboration with health authorities worldwide, we rigorously and continuously monitor all of our medicines, including the evaluation of reported adverse events,” they added.