Women on a very used contraception JAB are three – and one – half times more likely to suffer a potentially fatal brain tumor, a study shows.
It is the third major study in just over a year to show that the JAB increases the risk of an meningioma, the most common type of tumor in the brain, in those who have 12 months or more on it.
About 10,000 recipes per month are issued for medroxyprogesterone acetate – sold under the brand name Depo Provera – in England alone.
Hundreds of women in the UK are said to consider legal steps against the manufacturer Pfizer because they have not warned them about the risks.
A Class Action is already underway against Pfizer and other generic manufacturers of the JAB in the US, where more than 500 women claim that the companies were aware of the link, but users did not adequately warned the risks or promote safer alternatives.
The drug is giving a hormone injection every three months and works by preventing eggs from being released by a woman’s ovaries.
It was first licenseed for use on the NHS as a contraceptive more than 40 years ago.
But a 2024 study in the British Medical Journal of more than 18,000 women, by a team of scientists from the French National Agency for Medicines and Safety of Health Products, concluded that those who remained at least a year at a maximum of five times more risk of a meningioma.
Meningioma is the most common type of brain tumor and is the most found in women
The JAB is administered every three months in the operation of an doctor or a sexual health clinic
A second probe in September last year, by researchers from the University of Alabama in the US, yielded similar results.
Although non -cancer -like, the condition can cause blurry vision, headache, hearing loss, poor sense of smell and problems with swallowing. Tumors are normally slow – growing but can kill by compressing the brain and nerves if they become too large.
Between 2,000 and 3,000 people a year in the UK are diagnosed with an meningioma and it is more common in women.
In the latest study, scientists from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, meningioma in 72.181 women at the JAB with more than 247,000 women on oral contraception.
The results, in the opinion of the Diary of Expert about the safety of medicines, showed that the risks were more than in long -term users of the JAB.
Researcher Dr. Mahyar etminan said that the dangers did not seem to increase the more years of women spent the medicine.
But he added: ‘I really believe that the proof is now robust, with three large studies that show almost the same thing.
“Women who are concerned about this risk may want to consider opting for alternative contraceptives.”
It is estimated that there are 10,000 recipes every month for the JAB issued in England
It is not clear why the Jab caused tumor growth.
A theory is the synthetic hormone that uses – progestogeneous – binds to meningioma cells and helps them grow.
Some studies suggest that certain versions of the progestogenic pill can also increase the risk of meningioma, but only in a small proportion of women who take it for more than five years.
The British watchdog for drug safety – the regulatory agency for medicines and health care – last October called Pfizer with a warning about the increased risk in leaflets of patient information.
Pfizer also wrote to NHS doctors who encouraged them to stop women immediately to use Depo Provera if an meningioma was diagnosed with them.
Virginia Buchanan, partner at Levin Papantonio – the law firm that deals with the case in the US – said: ‘This new study strengthens the necessity of legal steps against Pfizer, in the hope of bringing justice to women who have never been warned about the increased risk of developing a brain tumor to develop from the brain tumororororororororororora is.
Pfizer refused to comment.
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