A New Jersey federal judge presiding over the 1,800 Mirena IUD lawsuits consolidated into one Mirena multicounty litigation has ordered a pool of these Mirena lawsuits to be prepared in order to choose one of them for the second Mirena bellwether trial. Most of the Mirena lawsuits included in this Mirena MCL are ones that allege severe damages due to device migration and uterine perforation. However some of the Mirena lawsuits included in this MCL allege some women experienced a pseudotumor cerebri, a more rare Mirena side effect.

According to a March 17th case management order, U.S. District Judge Brian Martinotti set out a schedule outlining the process of selecting the second group of lawsuits that may qualify for Mirena bellwether trial. This process will stretch until around sometime in 2016.

It is likely that next Mirena IUD lawsuit selected for early bellwether trial in this MCL will be one alleging personal injury claims related to the uterine perforation and not one alleging damages resulting from Mirena pseudotumor cerebri symptoms, as Mirena uterine perforation lawsuits represent the larger claims common to most of the MCL cases.

Earlier this year, plaintiffs filed a motion to consolidate the Mirena pseudotumor cerebri lawsuits into its own, separate Mirena multidistrict litigation to address claims regarding this neurological birth control side effect. However, the presiding judge ruled that there are an insufficient number of Mirena pseudotumor cerebri lawsuits to justify a separate Mirena MDL.

What is Pseudotumor Cerebri?

A pseudotumor cerebri (also known as intracranial hypertension) is a painful neurologicial condition where a woman experiences increased brain pressure that exhibits similar symptoms to a brain tumor, which is why it is occasionally referred to as a fake brain tumor. Although researchers are still searching for what exactly causes a pseudotumor cerebri, many doctors and researchers hypothesize that Mirena and other hormonal birth control may increase a patient’s risk of developing this neurological condition, since these drugs may be one of the root causes of poor absorption of cerebrospinal fluid.

When cerebrospinal fluid builds up in the skull, it can result in great pressure and present as a false brain tumor or pseudotumor. As previously stated, the exact cause of intracranial hypertension is unknown. However, certain birth control pills and IUD products have been reported to allegedly cause or at the very least co-occur with intracranial hypertension symptoms.

Based on recorded pseudotumor cerebri cases, some birth control pseudotumor cerebri symptoms include:

• Frequent headaches/migraines that start behind the eyes and increase in intensity with eye movement
• Pulsatile tinnitus
• Dizziness or Nausea
• Vomiting
• Blurred vision, double vision, blind spots
• Vision loss in one or both eyes
• Difficulty seeing to the side (decreased peripheral vision)
• Seeing light flashes (photopsia)
• Neck stiffness
• Neck, shoulder or back pain
• Problems walking
• Forgetfulness
• Depression

Mirena is not the only birth control to allegedly increase the risk of developing pseudotumor cerebri. Other popular birth control products  allegedly found to cause intracranial hypertension include:

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

As a result of the pain and suffering experienced by intracranial hypertension victims, many individuals have filed Mirena pseudotumor cerebri lawsuits or joined a Mirena pseudotumor cerebri class action lawsuit.