Birth control pills are prescription medications that have either a combination of the hormones estrogen and progestin, or just progestin. The hormones work to stop ovulation and prevent pregnancy.

Some women who take birth control pills don’t experience any side effects. However, many women encounter unpleasant side effects such as birth control headaches.

In some instances, these birth control headaches are caused by a condition known as a pseudo tumor cerebri which increases fluid levels in the skull, causing intracranial pressure.

Birth Control Headaches

Over 90 percent of people with pseudotumor cerebri report serious debilitating headaches. Symptoms include severe pain that is throbbing or pulsating, often located at the back of the head, and worsens in the early morning or at night. Without treatment, the headaches can become progressively more common and may be accompanied by nausea, light-sensitivity, and visual disturbances.

What Is Pseudotumor Cerebri?

According to the Mayo Clinic, pseudotumor cerebri, sometimes called idiopathic intracranial hypertension, involves an abnormal elevation of cerebrospinal fluid in the skull, causing increased pressure in the patient’s skull.

Pseudotumor cerebri is often associated with frequent or even daily headaches, swelling of the optic nerve and vision loss and is a condition in which the pressure around the brain increases, causing headaches and vision problems. Pseudotomor cerebri means “false brain tumor,” since its symptoms are similar to those caused by brain tumors.

The condition is especially prevalent in obese women who use some form of birth control. While pseudotumor cerebri only occurs in about one person per 100,000 in the general public, obese women under the age of 44 are nearly 20 times more likely to develop the disorder.

Pseudotumor cerebri symptoms closely resemble those of a brain tumor and the condition is sometimes misdiagnosed as a brain tumor. This further complicates the process of making a diagnosis and means pseudotumor cerebri is an easy condition for medical professionals to miss altogether.

Pseudotumor Cerebri and Birth Control

Officials from the National Institute of Health (NIH) warn that birth control pills are a risk factor for pseudotumor cerebri. Case reports have linked pseudotumor cerebri with exogenous estrogen, progestin-only implants, and birth control injections.

In 1995, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study linking pseudotumor cerebri with birth control pills and contraceptive implants containing the hormone levonorgestrel, such as the Mirena IUD, with 56 cases of pseudotumor cerebri and optic disc edema.

Birth Control Pseudotumor Cerebri Lawsuits

Birth control pills and birth control devices may put someone at greater risk for developing pseudotumor cerebri. However, this risk wasn’t shared with consumers, according to allegations raised in numerous birth control lawsuits.

Birth control lawsuits are being investigated for women who were diagnosed with pseudotumor cerebri after using the following birth control products: Yaz, Yasmin, Ocella, Beyaz, Implanon, Nexplanon, NuvaRing, Ortho Evra, Depo Provera, Paragaurd, Mirena.