Westwego, Louisiana – Fresh haircut of Robin Philip is painted with her favorite color – green. But under the task of the dye is a scar that passes along her head, as a result of two craniotomes.
For many years, 45 -Philip suffered from what, in her opinion, was migrainesThe field only at the beginning of 2018, when she had to leave the shift in the warehouse to go to the hospital, she found out that her headaches were a symptom of something more serious. She said that she almost crashed into a trip to the emergency department, blinded by pain.
“The nurse said:“ Well, what is your pain from 1 to 10? “I said 11, 12,” said Philip. “They put me in a chair, and I don’t remember anything after that.”
Philip woke up later in shocking news: she had Inner meningioma – The tumor of the mucous membrane of the brain. She needed an emergency operation.
After the procedure, Philip lost her vision in her left eye and had to study on walking again. Unable to work, she lost her apartment and moved with her mother until she could get to her feet.
“I felt lost, because where would I get the tumor? I had an ordinary life. I did ordinary things, ”she said. “What could cause it to me?”
Today Philip believes her Control over birth rate To blame. For almost 30 years, stopping only when she had two children, she used Depot Provere – Shot of progestin, given three times a year. It is one of more than 1000 women presenting Pfizer, who produces the medicine, claiming that the company knows more about risks and could not warn users. Pfizer switched to cleaning the lawsuit, claiming that the fact that the case is reached as a result of the decision to control products and medicines, and says that it is behind the safety and efficiency of DEP-provera.
According to Centers for control and prevention of diseases1 out of 4 sexually active women in the United States used depots. Black women use it almost twice the national rate.
Meningiomas, as a rule, are not cancer, that is, they do not apply to other parts of the body, but they can be harmful depending on their size and where they grow.
Philip's tumor pressed her Visual nervecausing problems with vision.
Recent study
In recent years, several studies have shown a possible relationship between the use of a depot and an increased risk of meningioma.
One of them, published earlier this month in Jama neurologyAcetate (MPA) associated with the miroxyprogesterone, the drug in the depot verbar, with a double increase in risk of meningioma. The risk was the largest in women who used the contraceptive for more than four years or began after 31 years.
Another study of 2024, published in BMJ Based on French data, they found a five-fold increase in risk of meningioma for long-term depot-checking users.
Doctors warn that research is an observation, which means that they cannot prove that the medicine caused tumors.
Dr. David Role, a radiation oncologist who specializes in the brain tumors and who is the chairman of the study of meningioma at the University of California, the Department of Radiation Oncology San Francisco, said that female sex hormones – in particular progesterone – are associated with meninggioma. (Prophet, hormone in a depot-verification, is a synthetic version of progesterone.) Meningioma-only tumors of the brain, which are more common in women than in men, he added.
Nevertheless, the roles said that this does not necessarily mean that progesterone causes the formation of meningioma. “All available data indicate that progesterone is fuel in fire,” he said. “Progesterone did not necessarily light a fire, but available data show that it is like a gas discharge.”
He said that recent studies connecting the depot-house with meningioma give him a break.
“Those of us in business often recommend that patients with meningiomas avoid hormone replacement therapy, use contraceptive funds based on non -choron, and be careful with pregnancy and Farm planning From these very well -documented associations, ”he said. “These new studies only enhance these problems and considerations.”
The general risk of developing meningiomas remains small: about 39,000 meningiomas diagnosed every year in the USA
“In general, meningioma is not common. This is not the type of tumor that we see very often, ”said Dr. Collin Denny, obstetrics in Nyu Langone Health. “The probability of the presence of meningioma as a DEPO user is incredibly low. It's just incredible, incredibly low for people who do not use DEP
A American college of obstetricians and gynecologists (ACOG) published a response to BMJ, calling caution, saying that “according to a study, five of the 10,000 women using Medroxyprogesterone acetate may develop meningioma compared to one of 10,000 women who do not use medicines.”
“The risk that they find is incredibly small,” said Dr. Nish Verma, senior adviser to reproductive health policy for Acog protection. “I think this is the consideration that we can talk about with patients, among all the considerations that patients are passing.”
“Uterine cancer More often than meningioma, and Depo reduces your risk of uterine cancer. So how do you balance it? “Denny said. “This is difficult, and it often depends on individual patients.”
Philip says that even this little risk would be too big for her.
“If I had [known] From the very beginning, I would never have made this shot, ”she said.
Lawsuit
Philip is currently one of the more than 1000 women who have a lawsuit, the manufacturer DEP-provera, claiming that the company could not warn them about risk.
“All these women have meningiomas. Many have surgery, some have radiation, and all of them had their life greatly influenced, ”said Ellen Silkin, a lawyer representing Philip and some other plaintiffs.
Philip’s lawsuit indicates several studies dating back in 1983, showing a connection between progesterone and meningioma. The lawsuit states that these studies created an “inexpressible obligation of the investigation”, and that Pfizer was supposed to study the risks associated with the depot before.
“The defendants deliberately, senselessly and intentionally conspired and acted in agreement, ignore the appropriate security problems and deliberately not to study long-term safety and effectiveness of depot-verification, especially among chronic long-term depot users,” the complaint says.
ACOG Verma said that hormonal control over the birth rate is well studied before it enters the market.
“Methods of control over the birth rate that are commercially available were carefully studied before becoming available to the public, and therefore we studied each type of control over birth rate. We examined security measures, ”she said. “We have guiding principles that make intensive reviews of all data and help us support patients in which methods can be safer for them.”
In a statement, NBC News Pfizer stated that it is behind the “safety and efficiency of the depot provers.”
In the court, filed at the beginning of this month, the company asked the judge to reject the case, saying that it became aware of the risks of meningioma associated with the depot in 2023, and filed an application with the management of products and drugs to add a warning to the label of the drug. The application also required adding warnings in two tablets containing much lower doses of MPA.
FDA rejected this request, according to the statement.
FDA refused to request NBC News about comments, but in her negative letter Pfizer, which is included in the filing of the company, it says: “The conclusions of only available observatory studies do not confirm the addition of products containing products containing meningiomas for acetate (MPA).
The PFIZER spokesman told NBC News that due to the denial of FDA, federal law portends the company from changing the warning label on DEP-Provera.
In an interview with NBC News, the lawyer of Phillips Silkin said that Pfizer had enough information to study the possible risks associated with the depot, and accused the company that he undertook Overbroad and Halfeabled to warn the patients to add a warning to each A medicine containing MPA.
“The depot-proverse is 150 milligrams. Three, four times a year, a very high dose, ”Silkin said. “There are low doses, 2.5 and 5 mg tablets, where there is no data showing that they cause a problem.”
“The dose makes poison,” she added. “Asking to change the label for everyone, they invited a refusal.”
Pfizer denied this accusation in his hearing. “If FDA really thought that some products need a warning about meningioma (and not for others) … FDA could“ quickly ”, Pfizer was reported,” he wrote.
Changes abroad
However, outside the United States, changes were made to the Pfizer label.
A European agency of drugs Meningioma has been added as a “possible side effect” of drugs with high doses of acetate of Medroxyprogesterone in 2024, and Pfizer continued Tell this risk to doctors in the European UnionThe Canadian label for the drug, updated in 2024, includes a meningioma in the “Warning and Precautions” section, which reported that “meningiomas were registered after a long -term administration of progestins, including acetate of the Medoxyprogesterone”.
In January, The drug regulation agency South Africa also recommended Updating the MPA drug label to enable the risk of meningioma.
Filip’s lawsuit claims that the PFIZER knew about potential risk a few years before these changes were made abroad, however, referring to the Canadian label in 2006, which lists the meningioma as one of the adverse reactions to drugs after the market, which is reported after the drug is already approved. On the 2006 label, it is noted that “the nature of post-marketing observation makes it difficult to determine whether the event caused by the depot-proceeds has actually registered.”
“What happened, connected with something with something, does not mean that one caused another,” said Dr. Junet Woodcock, a former deputy commissar of the director of FDA. “In the best interests of the company, everything is to put everything, because then if they have filed a lawsuit, they will say:“ Well, it was in a small font. ”
WoodCock, which is not connected with the lawsuit, noted that FDA usually has the last word about drug labels.
According to PFIZER, the company has repeatedly filed an application with FDA in June 2025.
“FDA has not yet approved any warnings about meningioma, and the resumption of Pfizer remains under consideration,” the statement said.
Zarkin said that an earlier warning would change everything for Philip and her other customers.
After the operation in 2018, Philip continued to accept the depot provers. Her doctors could not remove the entire tumor in 2018, and she needed a second operation in 2022, which followed radiation treatment from 2022 to 2024.
Nevertheless, the doctors could not remove the entire tumor from -how close it is to her optic nerve.
Philip says that she continued to accept the depot nature until she saw posts on social networks in 2024 about research connecting the drug with meningioma.
At the beginning of this month, she had the first set of scanning of the brain since she left drugs. She said that her radiologist told her that meningioma was contracting.
“My body tells me that my head tells me that I do not have such a big pain as before,” she said.
