A mother said she developed a brain tumour the size of an orange after using a contraceptive jab for nearly 25 years.
Minna Lotsari started using the birth control shot in 1997.
But she started behaving incoherently a few years ago, leaving her family concerned.
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She ended up losing some of her memory and cannot recall the birth of her grandchildren, as well as other periods.
The 54-year-old told Need To Know: “A few years ago, I began to feel unusually tired.
“I slept most of the time, developed headaches, and had difficulty seeing with one eye.
“My memory gradually worsened, and I often mixed up people’s names.”
Minna learned that she had developed a brain tumour two years ago.
“In November 2023, my children couldn’t get in touch with me one day and became worried,” she said.
“Eventually, they found me at home on the floor, where I had been sitting for many hours, probably since the evening before.
“It was 10am and I was completely absent, just looking around, and I didn’t even know what day it was.
“An ambulance arrived and doctors told me I had Covid-19.
“They wanted to send me home, but my daughter knew something wasn’t right and insisted that I stay – so I was admitted for one night.”
Minna’s daughter Emelie Lotsari, 34, explained: “I couldn’t take her home like that. ‘I know my mother,’ I said, ‘she’s incredibly changed in personality’.”
The next day, doctors performed a CT scan and discovered a large brain tumour that was “almost the size of an orange”.
Minna said: “That was the beginning of a long journey, during which it was uncertain whether surgery would even be possible.”
The medical team decided to operate and the surgery lasted around 10 hours.
Minna, who was born in Finland and now lives in Norrköping in Sweden, said she lost about 4.5 litres of blood during the op.
She has since been on a long road to recovery.
“It has been a long journey to reach where I am today,” she said.
“At the beginning, I needed home care services, a walker, and assistive devices in my home.
“Most importantly, my children had to take care of me – helping me shower, go to the toilet, prepare food, drive me to medical appointments, and simply stay with me so I would not fall over, as my balance was very bad.
“Today, I still live with many complications.
“My sense of taste and smell are gone and will never return because the nerve was damaged.
“I am almost blind in one eye – at the moment I can only distinguish light from dark, with just a few percent of vision remaining – and I have difficulty controlling my bladder.
Minna Lotsari. (Jam Press/Minna Lotsari)
“I still have poor balance and suffer from extreme mental fatigue.
“I am weak on one side of my body and live with constant pain.
“I also live with a great deal of anxiety and fear of death.”
Minna said she now lives in a room at her daughter’s house because she cannot manage being alone, especially in the evening.
“The hardest part is that I have lost several years of memory,” she said.
“I do not remember when my grandchildren were born, their early days, when my daughter was pregnant, or other major life events.
“It is devastating.”
Two years after the operation, Minna’s family realised there was an alleged link between the birth control shot and brain tumours.
They read about 1,300 women who launched a lawsuit against Pfizer over the Depo-Provera contraceptive jab.
Recent studies suggest a possible link between long-term use of the shot and an increased risk of developing meningiomas, typically benign brain or spinal cord tumours.
The FDA added a warning label for it in late 2025.
As a result, Minna’s condition was classified as a drug injury by the Swedish Pharmaceutical Insurance organisation.
She said: “I think it’s terrible, it’s scary.
“And especially knowing that so many people still take it.
“Sometimes I feel like I could have died from this tumour.”
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