France Reexamines Meningioma Risk From Androcur and Other Hormone Drugs

A documentary broadcast this week by France Télévisions has put renewed public attention on a long-running health issue in France: the link between certain hormone-based drugs and meningioma, a tumor that grows in the membranes covering the brain. The program centers on Androcur, the brand name for cyproterone acetate, a synthetic progestin that France's medicines safety agency, ANSM, has flagged as carrying a dose- and duration-dependent meningioma risk since 2018.

What the documentary examines

The program, titled "Enquête de santé: Traitements hormonaux, le nouveau scandale sanitaire?" ("Health Investigation: Hormone treatments, the new health scandal?"), was made available on the streaming platform France.tv on October 7, 2026, and broadcast on France 5 on October 13 at 21:05, according to France Télévisions' own program description. It follows journalist and filmmaker Élise Richard, who took Androcur from 2009 to 2018 and was subsequently diagnosed with a meningioma, the broadcaster's synopsis states.

According to that synopsis, pharmacovigilance reports pointing to a possible link between cyproterone acetate and meningioma first appeared in the late 1990s, with a clearer statistical signal emerging around 2003–2004. An explicit warning about the risk was not added to the drug's official product information until 2018.

Which drugs are involved

ANSM's own dossier on the subject names cyproterone acetate (Androcur and its generics) as the medicine most strongly associated with meningioma risk, describing the danger as rising with both dose and duration of treatment, particularly at doses of 25 mg per day or above. The agency has separately flagged four other progestins used for gynecological conditions or contraception for a similar, though not identical, signal, according to the health-news outlet Senior Actu, which reported on ANSM guidance ahead of the documentary's broadcast.

What French regulators have done since 2018

The risk figures for cyproterone acetate come from a 2018 epidemiological study by France's national health insurance fund (Assurance Maladie) and the neurosurgery department of Lariboisière Hospital, summarized by the Société Française d'Endocrinologie in its publication of ANSM's recommendations. According to that summary, ANSM sent a temporary guidance letter to healthcare professionals on September 20, 2018, followed by formal recommendations on October 8, 2018.

Senior Actu reported that the number of meningioma surgeries attributed to Lutényl and Lutéran fell from 152 cases in 2018 to 15 in 2023, a tenfold drop that followed a 2019 alert campaign and a sharp decline in prescriptions of those two drugs over the same period.

Ahead of the documentary's broadcast, Allo Docteurs, the France Télévisions health-news site, reported that around 1.6 million women are to receive letters warning them of the increased tumor risk associated with these treatments, without specifying the exact drug or the precise sender of that upcoming mailing.

ANSM's current advice to patients

ANSM has not withdrawn cyproterone acetate from the market, stating that the drug retains therapeutic value for conditions such as severe hirsutism in women and certain prostate cancer symptoms in men. The agency states that "their marketing in France is not being called into question." Instead, the agency's dossier instructs prescribers to avoid off-label uses such as acne or mild hirsutism, avoid prescribing to children or postmenopausal women, use the lowest effective dose, and reassess the benefit-risk balance annually.

For patients still on treatment, ANSM recommends a baseline brain MRI before starting therapy, a follow-up scan at five years, and then every two years if results stay normal. For people who have already stopped taking the drug, the agency says systematic imaging is not required, recommending an MRI mainly when warning signs appear — signs that can emerge at any point, even years after stopping, according to Senior Actu's summary of ANSM guidance.

• Frequent or worsening headaches
• Dizziness
• Changes in vision
• Weakness in a limb
• Speech difficulties
• Memory problems

ANSM says these symptoms warrant a medical consultation in anyone who has used cyproterone acetate, Lutényl, Lutéran or the other flagged progestins. The agency also notes that meningiomas linked to cyproterone acetate often shrink or stabilize once treatment stops, which in most cases allows doctors to monitor the tumor rather than operate, per the ANSM-sourced recommendations published by the Société Française d'Endocrinologie. ANSM also runs a free patient information line, 0 805 04 01 10.

Allo Docteurs, the France Télévisions health-news site covering the documentary, cites the patient association Amavea as estimating that steroid hormone treatments account for 10 to 20 percent of meningioma cases overall — a figure presented by that association rather than as an independently verified clinical statistic in the sources reviewed for this article.