Dr. V takes a deep dive into the alarming connection between the birth control shot Depo-Provera and the development of meningiomas—tumors that form in the brain and can have devastating, lifelong consequences. He explains how women who receive at least a year’s worth of Depo-Provera injections face a 5.5 times higher risk of developing these tumors compared to those who have never taken the drug. Dr. Vigna discusses how meningiomas often require invasive surgeries, may recur even after treatment, and can leave women with serious neurological complications, including weakness, vision loss, dementia, or the need for permanent medical devices such as shunts. He also sheds light on the troubling history of Depo-Provera, its unopposed progesterone risks, and how drugmaker Pfizer has issued stronger warnings in Europe and Canada—but not in the United States—leaving American women vulnerable. Beyond the medical dangers, Dr. Vigna addresses who may be held accountable in these cases, from the prescribing doctors to the manufacturers, and explains the ongoing litigation aimed at securing justice for affected women.For listeners who have developed a meningioma after using Depo-Provera for at least one year, contact Dr. Greg Vigna at (817) 809-9023 or visit vignalawgroup.com.TRANSCRIPT:Welcome to justice with doctor V. I'm a doctor and a lawyer. I have a national litigation practice and represent those who have suffered catastrophic injuries. In today's episode, we're going to talk about Depo-Provera and meningioma. Depo-Provera is a birth control medication given by injection we know causes meningioma. As if that women received at least four injections over the course of a year. Depo-Provera is a birth control. Women as young as 15 are prescribed. What are your thoughts on this birth control shot? The risk of Depo-Provera has been figured out that if you've taken Depo-Provera, you have a 5.5 times the risk of developing meningioma compared to women who have not received a year's worth of Depo-Provera. So that's a big risk. We know that depo Rivera causes mutations, a specific mutation that causes multiple meningioma. Those are tumors that are in the brain, and they tend to be on the skull base, the skull base meningioma, as are those tumors that tend to be harder to get to.If you've had used it for over a year, you have at least a 5.5 times the risk of developing meningioma as compared to women who have not received that. So your overall risk still is rare, but certainly you don't want to be on a drug that causes a specific mutation. There are plenty of other medications that are available and have been available at all times, that you can achieve sterility temporarily. Ever since the 1980s, they've known that meningioma is grow in pregnancy. When you're during pregnancy, you know that placenta is a progesterone factory. So women develop meningioma. And meningioma is grow during pregnancy and after birth. The meningioma is they know, shrink. So we know that the cell line is involved with meningioma as is reacted to progesterone. A brain tumor is one of the scariest things someone could hear coming from a doctor. What is the severity of a meningioma? Women who develop meningioma often require surgical resection. Women who have surgical resection, they may have recurrences. There are women who have had recurrences that have required radiation therapy. There are women who have had radiation therapy for a meningioma that then develop radiation related dementia. There are women who develop meningioma that can't be operated on because the location is such that removal of the tumor more dangerous than slowly becoming more incapacitated by the tumor. So if you've taken Depo-Provera or a generic for at least one year and you've developed a meningioma, you need representation. What is the diagnosis for these meningiomas? How do women know that they are at risk? How are people diagnosed with meningioma? People who have brain tumors can have weakness of their limbs. They could have visual loss. They could have balance problems. They could have headaches that lead to a diagnostic test. And that diagnostic test is generally a CT scan or MRI. And the diagnosis is generally made with diagnostic imaging. These tumors tend to be benign or often calcified. They tend to be more circular. Of course, you will never know for sure that you're dealing with meningioma until biopsy. Biopsy is usually obtained at the time of resection, but for the most part, you tend to look at it on an MRI and know what you're dealing. This drug seems to have a lot of baggage. How long has Depo-Provera been on the market? Depo-Provera was developed beginning in the 1970s and 1980s and was approved in the early 1990s, and it was studied in Atlanta, at Grady Hospital. Generally been used in the African American women. Certainly there are better options, and in many doctors stopped using Depo-Provera when it became understood that unopposed progesterone can have complications of osteoporosis and other medical problems. Also, doctors didn't like unopposed progesterone because hormones cause things to grow. When you had combined estrogen with progesterone in the form of birth control, birth control with estrogen, progesterone. They tend to cancel each other out, and you're not seeing the complications related to unopposed progesterone. I want to talk about liability for these women who have suffered from these brain tumors. From the birth control shot known as Depo- Provera, who is liable in these types of cases for these women that you represent? So when we get a case, we are always evaluating a case to see if this is the case that there was physician malpractice versus pure case against Pfizer and the authorized generics. At some point, the doctors should not have been prescribing this medication, and doctors are still prescribing this medication. Pfizer has changed the warnings for Depo-Provera in Europe, in Canada, but has not changed the warnings in the United States, but still think that doctors do have a responsibility and we are evaluating every case to see if that's the case, that we should bring against both the doctor and the manufacturer. We have cases filed in the Multidistrict litigation. For example, we have clients that were diagnosed with a meningioma in 2021, over ten years of Depo-Provera. And they had the tumor resected and they continued on Depo-Provera, and they developed multiple recurrences and required another surgery and continue with Depo-Provera. I've taken care of meningioma since 1996. I'm a brain injury doctor. I testify as an expert on brain injuries, and I manage hundreds of patients who have had meningioma resections, its most common brain tumor, and people who have complications from meningioma resection tend to make it into rehab. And I was a rehab doctor. I've taken care of people who have hemi paresis from meningioma hydrocephalus, where they need a shunt for meningioma. So I understand the chronic complications of this drug, the chronic complications of meningioma. And I'm a brain injury doctor, and I sue Pfizer for Depo-Provera related meningioma. These are serious injuries by a very bad drug. Pfizer still is not warning doctors and they're still women who are receiving this bad drug. This is serious litigation. 

Ver todos los episodios