Depo-Provera Brain Tumor Caused Numbness Over Half of Woman’s Body, Lawsuit Alleges

Study last year linked the birth control shots to intracranial meningioma risks, leading to a wave of lawsuits against manufacturers of the birth control shot.

When Nadia White began receiving quarterly injections of the Depo-Provera birth control shot in 2001, no one warned her, or other women, that it increased their risk of potentially deadly brain tumors, according to a lawsuit filed by the Louisiana woman.

After she stopped taking the injections in 2012, White was also unaware there was an intracranial meningioma developing in her brain until the left side of her face, and then the entire left side of her body, started going numb. The tumor was detected in April 2019, when White underwent an MRI scan, and even then, it would be years later before she and her doctors linked the use of Depo-Provera to the meningioma’s development.

Depo-Provera Brain Tumors

Depo-Provera has been used as a quarterly birth control injection for more than 30 years, with tens of millions of women receiving the shot, often for ten years or longer.

White is among a growing number of women who have filed Depo-Provera brain tumor lawsuits in recent months, following a series of studies published last year that linked the birth control injection to an increased risk of intracranial meningiomas, with some women facing up to a five-fold higher risk.

Each complaint involves similar allegations that the manufacturers knew or should have known about the Depo-Provera brain tumor risks, but failed to provide adequate warnings to patients or the medical community. As more women like White connect their brain tumors to Depo-Provera, the size and scope of litigation is expected to continue to expand, with attorneys predicting several thousand lawsuits may ultimately be filed before the first cases go before a jury.

White’s complaint (PDF) was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida on July 30, naming Pfizer Inc., Pharmacia & Upjohn Company LLC, and Pharmacia LLC as the defendants. Pfizer is the manufacturer of the brand name Depo-Provera, while the others make generic versions of the birth control injections.

White received Depo-Provera or its generic equivalent from 2001 to 2012. Over time, she began experiencing worsening symptoms, including severe headaches and numbness that initially affected the center of her face and eventually spread to the entire left side of her body.

In April 2019, she underwent an MRI that revealed the presence of the brain tumor, and that July, White underwent a “highly invasive” medical procedure to remove the tumor. The complaint indicates that, despite the success of that procedure, she will still experience debilitating symptoms for the rest of her life and will have to receive regular MRI scans to ensure the tumor doesn’t return.

The lawsuit claims the manufacturers should have been aware of the potential risks, given the well-established effects of progesterone on tumor growth, and accuses them of putting profits ahead of women’s health and safety. White’s complaint argues it should not have taken last year’s studies for the public to finally be warned about these dangers.

“Several scientific studies have established that progesterone, its synthetic analogue progestin, and Depo-Provera in particular, cause or substantially contribute to the development of intracranial meningiomas. Nevertheless, Defendants failed to warn, instruct, advise, educate, or otherwise inform Depo-Provera users and prescribers about the risk of intracranial meningioma or the need for monitoring for resultant symptoms.”

–Nadia White v. Pfizer Inc. et al

White presents claims of failure to warn, design defect, negligence, negligent failure to warn, negligent design defect, negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent misrepresentation, and breach of warranty. She seeks both compensatory and punitive damages.

Depo-Provera Brain Tumor Lawsuits

The lawsuit will be centralized with at least 550 other similar claims already pending in the District of Northern Florida under U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers as part of a Depo-Provera brain tumor lawsuit MDL, or multidistrict litigation.

Judge Rodgers is currently overseeing the preparation of five “pilot” lawsuits that will serve as bellwether trials, allowing both plaintiffs and defendants to see how juries respond to evidence and expert testimony likely to be repeated throughout the litigation. The results of these trials could help the parties form the basis of a Depo-Provera brain tumor lawsuit settlement agreement.

However, if no settlement or other resolution is reached by the time the pretrial proceedings are concluded, Judge Rodgers will likely remand the claims back to their originating districts for individual trial dates.

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