Hundreds of lawsuits are already pending over the damaging side effects of contraceptives. Now some women may have a new basis for a birth control lawsuit arising out of the tendency of certain contraceptives to increase the risk of a condition called pseudotumor cerebri.

Pseudotumor cerebri is a disorder with symptoms that resemble those of a brain tumor, but without the presence of an actual tumor. The condition is also known as intracranial hypertension or benign intracranial hypertension. It results from an excess of the fluid that normally occurs in the brain and spinal cord, known as cerebrospinal fluid.

The most characteristic symptom of pseudotumor cerebri is a headache that occurs daily or nearly daily. The headache may sometimes come with nausea.

Visual disturbances such as obscuration or diplopia may occur, as may tinnitus. Physical exertion tends to aggravate these symptoms. The condition can also lead to papilledema.

Although pseudotumor cerebri can happen in people of any sex and any age, it is more common in women of childbearing age and in people who suffer from obesity, thyroid conditions, or chronic kidney failure.

Diagnosis is usually done by magnetic resonance imaging or by spinal tap, which involves puncturing the spine to extract a sample of cerebrospinal fluid. Treatment can be as simple as medication, weight loss or dietary restrictions, or it can be as invasive as surgically implanting a shunt to drain fluid from the brain.

When the condition is related to obesity, bariatric surgery may relieve it. If left untreated, pseudotumor cerebri can progress into complications that can cause permanent vision loss due to optic nerve problems.

Pseudotumor Cerebri as a Birth Control Side Effect

While the cause of pseudotumor cerebri is not known, certain birth control medications are associated with an increased risk of developing this condition. These are typically medication-based birth control methods that include birth control pills, implantable devices, and intrauterine devices (IUDs).

Birth control lawsuits have begun to raise the issue of pseudotumor cerebri as a birth control side effect. Plaintiffs typically allege that the manufacturers of certain birth controls did not properly alert them or their physicians to the increased risk of pseudotumor cerebri associated with those medications.

They may state that the manufacturer’s labeling and marketing was misleading and that they would not have used that particular birth control had they been fully informed of the risks.

In 2014, a subset of plaintiffs in the Mirena IUD multidistrict litigation, or MDL, currently pending in federal court in New Jersey tried to get their pseudotumor cerebri lawsuits separated into their own MDL.

The judge rejected their request, though not for lack of merit: there were simply not enough lawsuits involved to justify establishing a separate MDL. (Most Mirena lawsuits are based on a different complication, namely the tendency of the IUD to perforate the uterus and migrate through the abdomen.)

Attorneys are investigating pseudotumor cerebri as a contraceptive side effect. These attorneys are interested in hearing from women who were diagnosed with pseudotumor cerebri or intracranial hypertension after using any of the following birth control methods:

• Yaz
• Yasmin
• Beyaz
• Ocella
• Mirena IUD
• Depo-Provera
• Implanon
• Nexplanon
• NuvaRing
• Ortho Evra
• ParaGard