Over the past two decades, several studies have suggested that certain birth control products have induced painful side effects in women, including Pseudotumor Cerebri (PTC). This condition causes side effects akin to a brain tumor, including severe vision loss and permanent blindness.

What is Pseudotumor Cerebri?

Pseudotumor Cerebri is a serious medical condition where a buildup of spinal fluid occurs that puts pressure on the optic nerve, which causes severe headaches, migraines, and vision loss.

Pseudotumor Cerebri symptoms are rare, occurring most often in obese women during their reproductive years. If not diagnosed in time, Pseudotumor cerebri can cause permanent blindness and irreversible vision damage.

Medical experts explain that the intracranial pressure from the extra spinal fluid not only increases pressure in the skull, but causes obstruction to the blood-flow to the eye. This causes swelling in the optic disc at the back of the eye, which can cause irreversible nerve damage and blindness. This additional pressure can also lead to another common side effect of PTC, headaches; over time the cranial pressure headache will become more severe, persistent, and frequent.

Without treatment, women suffering from PTC may develop chronic migraine headaches, rendering pain medication useless.

Pseudotumor cerebri can only be diagnosed with a lumbar puncture, or spinal tap, in which a long needle punctures the patient and is inserted between two vertebrate in the lower lumber. During this procedure, a small sample of cerebralspinal fluid is collected and tested. In severe cases, patients may need to have the fluid drained from the brain, using a shunt.

What is ParaGard?

Similar to Mirena, ParaGard is a long-term contraceptive product that is directly inserted into a woman’s uterus. Ideally, it can prevent pregnancy for up to ten years by preventing sperm-to-egg fertilization. The ParaGard is a T-shaped device that is made of a biologically safe plastic, with copper points on the ends of the device that prevents fertilization. Unlike the Mirena IUD, ParaGard is a hormone-free product, designed to be free of any hormonal side effects.

Due to this characteristic, ParaGard is not widely known to cause Pseudotumor Cerebri, nor are there any studies to indicate that it does. Despite this, PTC injury reports exist and are being investigated like any other birth control PTC claim.

Overview of Birth Control Pseudotumor Cerebri

A number of birth control products have been alleged to cause PTC. Medical experts have suspected a link between birth control products and Pseudotumor Cerebri since 1995, when the New England Journal of Medicine published a study regarding the link. More specifically, the study observed 56 cases of Pseudotumor Cerebri that occurred after using an IUD called Norplant.

This study started a string of worry in the medical community, with other studies finding PTC occurrences with other hormone-based IUDs and birth control products.

According to medical experts, a possible explanation of contraceptive-induced Pseudotumor Cerebri may be linked to the pathways the hormones travel. The hormones could possibly block the channels of the cerebral venous sinuses, which can cause pressure to rise in the skull and cause PTC.

While experts are unsure as to the exact causes of Pseudotumor Cerebri in general, many suspect that it may be due to the hormones in many birth control products. For example, the Mirena IUD has been associated with over 50 cases of Pseudotumor Cerebri, and is known for using the hormone levonorgestrel to prevent ovulation and sperm-to-egg conception.

Other different type of birth control products linked to Pseudotumor Cerebri includes: Yaz, Yasmin, Ocella, Gianvi, NuvaRing, and many others.