A woman is suing her birth control company after developing a brain tumor. At 30 years old, doctors discovered a lime-sized tumor in her brain. Fortunately, Elizabeth Fleurisma survived both surgery and radiation.
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But she still has a piece of the tumor in her skull.
“When I came out of surgery, when I came home, it’s almost like I didn’t even know my environment,” Fleurisma told New York Post. “Sometimes when I’m trying to speak, I’ll forget a word. It’s not easy healing from these things or getting back to where you left off.”
Fleurisma is suing Depo-Provera birth control after using the device fore eight years. She’s one of 1,700 lawsuits against the Pfizer, the manufacturer of Depo-Provera. Fleurisma alleges that Depo-Provera failed to warn users that the birth control increased brain tumors.
Birth Control Lawsuit
Fleurisma, who lives in Centereach, believes her meningioma came from the use of Depo-Provera birth control for eight years.
“I’ve filed cases on behalf of about 150 women and have many other clients that we’re still evaluating, and Elizabeth’s tumor is the largest of all the ones I’ve seen,” Fleurisma’s attorney, Ellen Relkin, told the outlet.
Meanwhile, Pfizer “believes these claims are without merit and will vigorously defend against these allegations.”
The statement continued, “The Company stands behind the safety and efficacy of Depo-Provera, which has been used by millions of women worldwide and remains an important treatment option for women seeking to manage their reproductive health.”
Fleurisma’s lawsuit alleges that the birth control increased the risk of brain tumors.
“The relationship between sex hormones and meningioma tumors has been known since the 1920s, and the presence of progesterone receptors in meningioma tissue has been reported since the 1970s,” Fleurisma’s suit claims.
“Several scientific studies have established that progesterone, its synthetic analog progestin and Depo-Provera, in particular, cause and/or substantially contribute to the development and growth of intracranial meningioma tumors.”
Since 2023, Fleurisma stopped taking the birth control. She’s been working on getting her life back on track.
“As soon as I found out about the diagnosis, everything stopped from there, because I couldn’t bear these headaches at work,” she said.
“I was in the process of recertifying [as a nursing assistant] and also becoming a mental health hygienist, so all of these things were put on hold. Two years later, now I’m back where I started,” she said. “So it’s not easy.”