'I have an inoperable brain tumour after having the contraceptive jab'

A mother of two from Wales says a birth control injection she used for 15 years may have caused a brain tumour that doctors cannot fully remove. Lauren Lewington, 35, from Bangor in north Wales, received a contraceptive shot called Depo-Provera for many years. She now lives with severe headaches and nerve pain every single day. Her case is one of about 100 in the UK where women are taking legal action against the drug company Pfizer, saying the injection is linked to a type of brain tumour.

A study published in a major medical journal in 2024 found that women who used the Depo-Provera injection for at least one year were 5.6 times more likely to develop a type of brain tumour called a meningioma. A meningioma grows in the tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord. It is not a cancer, but it can still cause serious problems like seizures, vision changes, hearing loss, and intense headaches. The same year that study came out, the warning label on the injection was updated to mention this risk.

Lauren first noticed something was wrong in July 2022, when she started having ear pain and very bad headaches. Her doctor thought it might be migraines, which are a type of severe headache. Then, on her son's ninth birthday, Lauren felt a sudden, crushing pain in her head — as if she had been hit with a baseball bat. She collapsed to the floor in agony and was rushed to the emergency room.

In the months that followed, Lauren visited the hospital up to twice a week because her headaches were so bad she could barely walk. In December 2022, a CT scan — a type of medical imaging that takes detailed pictures inside the body — showed she had a meningioma brain tumour. Scans later showed the tumour was growing about 1 millimetre every month. She also developed a type of nerve damage linked to one of the most painful conditions known in medicine, sometimes called 'suicide pain' because it is so hard to bear.

By the time Lauren had her first surgery in January 2023, her condition was so serious that she could not properly care for her two sons, aged 9 and 12, both of whom are autistic. Her husband, Aaron Edwards, had to quit his job to look after her and their children. Lauren went through two more operations, but doctors told her they could not safely remove all of the tumour because it was wrapped around important blood vessels in her brain. She then had radiotherapy, a treatment that uses energy beams to try to stop a tumour from growing.

After her final operation, Lauren learned that her tumour tested 80 percent positive for progesterone receptors, which means the hormone in her birth control may have helped the tumour grow. Doctors told her to stop the injection right away. Since she stopped taking it in January 2025, scans have shown that the tumour is actually getting a little smaller. She now wants Depo-Provera taken off store shelves entirely.

Another woman, who asked to be called only Deana, has a similar story. Deana, 43, used the Depo-Provera injection for more than 25 years and has now developed several inoperable brain tumours. She is blind in her left eye and deals with painful headaches every day. She did not learn about the possible link between the injection and her tumours until 2024.

A lawyer named Lisa Lunt is helping Deana, Lauren, and around 100 other women pursue their cases. Lunt said many of these women were never told about the possible risks of using hormonal contraceptives for a long time. 'It's life-changing for women who've got memory loss, or are now disfigured from craniotomies, suffer with epilepsy, or have cognitive changes and eyesight problems,' she said. Their stories are drawing attention to whether patients receive clear enough information about the medicines they are given.

The UK's medicine safety agency, called the MHRA, says it constantly reviews the safety of drugs like Depo-Provera and will take further action if new risks are found. Its chief safety officer said that for most people the benefits of the injection still outweigh the risks, but urged anyone with concerns to speak with their doctor. Pfizer, the company that makes Depo-Provera, said patient safety is its top priority and that it carefully monitors all of its medicines. The company added that the injection has a strong record of being both effective and safe.

Lauren says she hopes her story will push for bigger changes in how women are warned about birth control risks. 'I'm angry, and I'm upset. And I don't want anyone else to go through what my family and I have been through,' she said. Many people are now calling for clearer labels and more research into the long-term effects of hormonal contraceptives. The legal cases against Pfizer are still ongoing.