A mother-of-two lives with unbearable pain caused by an inoperable brain tumour she believes was triggered by having the contraceptive injection.
Lauren Lewington, from Bangor in north Wales, had the Depo-Provera contraceptive injection for 15 years. She has since developed numbness in her face and severely painful headaches.
“There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t cry,” Ms Lewington told The Independent. “I spend nights awake worrying about what the tumour might do while I sleep.”
The 35-year-old is one of around 100 women in the UK taking legal action against pharmaceutical giant Pfizer over the link between medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), a progestogen hormone contraceptive called Depo-Provera, and benign brain tumours.
A study published in the British Medical Journal in 2024 found women who used the injection for at least a year were 5.6 times more likely to develop meningioma brain tumours – the same year the patient information leaflet was updated with the risk.
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Ms Lewington started to experience ear pain and intense headaches in July 2022, which her GP said could be a migraine. Then, on her son’s ninth birthday, she recalls feeling like she had been “hit by a baseball bat” over the head, causing agonising pain.
“It just felt like my head was going to explode off my shoulders,” Ms Lewington said, recalling dropping to the floor in pain as she arrived at A&E.
Over the following months, she visited hospital sometimes twice a week with headaches so severe she was often unable to walk.
Eventually, a CT scan in December 2022 revealed she had a meningioma, a type of non-cancerous brain tumour.
The tumour starts in the layers of tissue that cover the brain and spinal cord. It can cause seizures, changes in eyesight, hearing loss and headaches, according to Cancer Research.
Although non-cancerous, further scans showed her tumour was growing 1mm a month. She developed damage to her nerves associated with one of the most severe forms of pain known to medicine, nicknamed “suicide pain” because it is so unbearable.
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By the time she had surgery in January 2023, her condition had become so severe that she was unable to care properly for her two sons, aged 12 and 9, both of whom are autistic. Her husband, Aaron Edwards, left his job to care for her and their children.
After two further operations, doctors were unable to safely remove the remainder of the tumour because of its location around critical blood vessels and she underwent radiotherapy.
“They told me they couldn’t take any more away because it was too dangerous,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking to know that I’ll never be tumour-free.”
It wasn’t until after the final operation that she learned of a possible connection between her tumour and hormonal contraception. A test revealed her tumour was 80 per cent progesterone receptor positive, and she was told to stop taking the contraception immediately.
Since stopping the injection in January 2025, scans have shown evidence of tumour shrinkage. She said she now wants to see “Depo-Provera off the shelves”.
“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.
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Deana, who is also looking to file a claim against Pfizer, took the Depo-Provera injection for more than 25 years. She is now blind in her left eye and suffers painful headaches after developing several inoperable brain tumours.
The 43-year-old, who did not want to share her surname, first went to the optician in May 2018 because her left eye would not stay open. They advised there was something on her optic nerve and she was referred to hospital where she was diagnosed with a meningioma. Years later, in 2024, she learned of the possible link to the contraceptive injection.
“I had the jab for my period pain; it was a known fact that it would help reduce the pain, and it did. But it feels like they’ve failed me because now I have to live with this for the rest of my life,” she told The Independent.
Lisa Lunt, partner at Fletchers Solicitors, is supporting Deana and Ms Lewington along with around 100 other women who fear they have been impacted by the Depo-Provera jab.
“Many women have told us they were unaware of the potential risks associated with prolonged exposure to certain hormonal contraceptives,” she told The Independent.
“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.”
The UK drugs regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), explained the safety of MPA and other synthetic forms of progesterone are under continual review and that if new information is identified then further regulatory action will be considered.
Dr Alison Cave, chief safety officer at the MHRA, said: “Patient safety is our top priority. For the majority of people, the benefits of Depo-Provera outweighs the risks, but we advise anyone with any concerns to speak with their GP, pharmacist, or contraceptive provider.”
A Pfizer spokesperson stressed “patient safety is our top priority” and said Depo-Provera “has a well-established efficacy and safety profile”.
“We conduct rigorous and continuous monitoring of all our medicines, including assessments of reported adverse events, in collaboration with health authorities around the globe,” they added.
