Lawsuit Alleges Depo-Provera Caused Intracranial Meningioma Brain Tumors

Following years of hormonal birth control shots, intracranial meningiomas developed that required repeated surgeries and radiation treatments to remove the brain tumors.

A California woman has filed a lawsuit against Depo-Provera manufacturers, alleging that consumers and the medical community have not been adequately warned about risks that the hormonal birth control shot may cause intracranial meningiomas, even though it appears that the drug makers were aware of this potential side effect for decades.

The complaint (PDF) was brought by Ajanna Lawson in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on October 18, indicating that she developed brain tumors from Depo-Provera after receiving the injections for more than two decades, requiring her to undergo multiple surgeries and radiation treatments.

Depo-Provera is a widely used birth control injection, which only needs to be administered four times a year, containing  a synthetic form of the hormone progesterone.

It has been aggressively marketed as a safe and effective means of preventing pregnancy, and currently is used by more than 70 million women each year. However, concerns have recently emerged about the potential risk that Depo-Provera may cause meningiomas to develop around the brain or spinal cord.

Following the publication of a study earlier this year, which found that users of the birth control shot face a more than five fold increased risk of developing the brain tumor, Lawson joins a growing number of other women now pursuing Depo-Provera lawsuits against Pfizer, Upjohn and other companies involved in the development and marketing of the shot, each raising similar allegations that they may have avoided a meningioma diagnosis if accurate warnings and information had been provided.

Lawson indicates that she first received a Depo shot in 2001, when she was just 16 years old, and she continued to receive Depo-Provera injections regularly until September 2024, totaling about 95 injections. Those included both the brand name product and authorized generic versions.

However, in recent years, Lawson began to develop blurred vision, persistent headaches and other health problems. In July 2023, she underwent a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, which revealed her brain contained “a large, enhancing, extra-axial meningioma measuring approximately 6.7 x 5.9 x 5.7 cm” behind her eyes and above her nasal cavity.

This led to a vasogenic edema, causing excessive amounts of fluid and pressure to build in her brain, resulting in impaired nerve functions, increased intracranial pressure, and compression of brain tissue and blood vessels nearby.

As a result of the meningioma caused by Depo-Provera, Lawson indicates that she underwent a surgical procedure in July 2023 to have the brain tumor removed.

“During the procedure, the neurosurgeon made an incision in the Plaintiff’s scalp and used a retractor to hold the tissue in place. Small holes were drilled in the Plaintiff’s skull, and a section of the cranial bone was removed to access the right frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. The meningioma was then exposed and the brain surgeon noted that ‘the tumor extended across the midline and the falx was coagulated and divided to resect tumor from the left side’,” the lawsuit states. “Most of the mass was removed; however, a thin layer of tissue, referred to as the ‘rind,’ remains attached near the anterior cerebral artery complex, a critical group of blood vessels in the brain.”

Her skull had to be surgically closed using two titanium metal plates and 15 bone screws. However, during Lawson’s recovery, she suffered additional complications, including cerebrospinal fluid leakage.

She still experiences vision problems, gait instability, cognitive difficulties, persistent headaches, and hypersensitivity along the areas of her skull where the screws were drilled into place, the lawsuit notes.

This, however, was not the end of Lawson’s ordeal. An MRI this year found a residual portion of the brain tumor that had been missed in the first procedure. She has undergone multiple sessions of stereotactic radiosurgery this year, resulting in severe nausea and vomiting after every session. While the tumor has decreased in size, it is still not completely gone.

Her doctor has indicated Lawson has no genetic predisposition toward intracranial meningioma, and the lawsuit blames the brain tumor on Depo-Provera side effects.

Depo-Provera Intracranial Meningioma Risks

Lawson’s complaint seeks damages from Pfizer, as well as a number of other drug manufacturers, including Viatris Inc., Greenstone LLC, Prasco LLC and Pharmacia & Upjohn Co..

She claims that the companies knew or should have known for decades that progesterone in Depo-Provera may cause meningioma, with doctors and scientists aware that meningioma cells have a high number of progesterone receptors since at least 1983.

Although the manufacturers had decades to do their own investigation into the meningioma risks, Lawson notes that they failed to do so, leaving women using Depo-Provera unaware of the risks.

“Had Defendants done so, they would have discovered decades ago that their high dose progestin Depo-Provera was associated with a highly increased risk of meningioma,” the lawsuit states. “Instead, Defendants did nothing, and therefore willingly failed to apprise the medical community, and the women patients receiving quarterly high dose injections, of this dangerous risk.”

The lawsuit notes that the more stringent Depo-Provera brain tumor warnings are included on the drug label in Canada, but the manufacturers have failed to give U.S. women the benefit of those same warnings.