Court To Weigh Evidence That Depo-Provera Causes Meningioma Tumors in Mid-2026

As a growing number of women file Depo-Provera lawsuits alleging they were not adequately warned about the risk of brain tumors, a federal judge will determine whether expert testimony in the cases is based on reliable science.

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all Depo-Provera lawsuits brought throughout the federal court system has released an updated timeline for determining whether plaintiffs have sufficiently reliable evidence that the birth control injection causes meningioma brain tumors to allow the cases to proceed to trial.

The litigation centers on the drug makers failure to warn women about the link between Depo-Provera and meningiomas, which are rare brain tumors that can produce symptoms like severe headaches, vision problems or other neurological deficits, often resulting in the need for surgery or other procedures to relieve pressure on the brain.

Concerns that side effects of Depo-Provera cause brain tumors first emerged in April 2024, when a study suggested that women receiving the birth control shot may be 5.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with a meningioma.

Over the past 18 months, more than 2,100 women have come forward to file a Depo-Provera meningioma lawsuit, alleging that the drug makers knew or should have known about the potential risk, yet chose to withhold critical safety information from users and the medical community.

Most of the cases are currently consolidated as part of a federal multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the Northern District of Florida, where U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers was appointed earlier this year to oversee discovery and other pretrial proceedings.

To help the parties gauge the relative strengths and weaknesses of their claims, and promote potential Depo-Provera settlements, Judge Rodgers previously instructed the parties to prepare a group of five “pilot” cases for early trial dates, which will give them a chance to see how juries respond to evidence and testimony likely to be repeated throughout the litigation.

On December 12, Judge Roberts issued a scheduling order (PDF) outlining key deadlines in the pilot cases, including a January 1, 2026 deadline for plaintiffs to identify witnesses they intend to present at trial, and disclose general causation experts that will testify that it is scientifically feasible for Depo-Provera to cause meningiomas in women receiving the birth control shot.

The drug manufacturers will then disclose their list of experts that will be offered to refute general causation by February 9, with all depositions for general causation experts to be completed by March 20, 2026.

Parties will then file motions challenging the admissibility of specific general causation experts or opinions by April 22, 2026, with opposition filings due by May 1.

The Court will then weigh the motions, determining whether each side has established that the expert opinions about whether Depo-Provera causes meningioma are sufficiently reliable and rooted in established scientific principals to allow the jury to consider the testimony during the pilot trials.

It is expected that Judge Rodgers may issue rulings on the motions in mid-2026, setting up the potential for the first Depo-Provera pilot trials to go before juries by the end of next year or in 2027.

While the outcomes of the pilot trials will not be binding on other claims in the federal or state courts, they will be closely watched by lawyers involved in the litigation and could help form the basis of a Depo-Provera lawsuit settlement agreement, avoiding the need for hundreds of individual trials to be scheduled nationwide in future years.

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