Depo-Provera Litigation Now Includes Over 2,000 Brain Tumor Lawsuits Brought by Women

Lawsuits over Depo-Provera brain tumors continue to be filed as the parties work to establish general causation and prepare a group of pilot cases for trial.

Depo-Provera brain tumor lawsuits have surged past 2,000 filings in just two months, reflecting a rapidly accelerating wave of new claims being brought in the federal court system on behalf of women throughout the United States who developed meningiomas after receiving the birth control shot.

The lawsuits target Pfizer and some generic drug manufacturers, each involving similar allegations by women who indicate their brain tumors were caused by side effects of the Depo-Provera shots, indicating that pharmaceutical companies withheld information from users and the medical community about the potential risk for decades.

Depo-Provera was first approved in the U.S. in 1992 as a long-acting hormonal contraceptive involving a quarterly injection of the synthetic progestin medroxyprogesterone acetate. Believing advertisements that claimed the “Depo shot” is safe and effective, tens of millions of women have chosen to receive the injections instead of taking a daily birth control pill.

However, concerns first began to emerge about a year ago, after studies warned that Depo-Provera is linked to an increased risk of intracranial meningioma, indicating women who received the injections faced 5.5 times the risk of brain tumors than women who did not take the birth control shot. Intracranial meningioma can cause serious, potentially life-threatening complications, often requiring brain surgery to remove the tumors and life-long medical monitoring.

The studies’ findings led to an influx of Depo-Provera brain tumor lawsuits both in federal and state courts that continue to this day. Depo-Provera brain tumor lawyers anticipate cases will continue to be filed for months or even years as more women link their brain tumors to Depo-Provera use.

Given common questions of fact and law raised in complaints brought by women nationwide, the federal litigation has been consolidated in the Northern District of Florida under U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings. However, hundreds of additional claims have also been filed in certain states, primarily Delaware and New York.

Judge Rodgers is scheduled to hold a case management conference tomorrow, to allow the parties to update the Court on the status of discovery and to gauge the current size and scope of the litigation. In preparation for that conference, the parties submitted a joint update and proposed agenda (PDF) on November 17.

According to the update, there are currently 1,633 Depo-Provera lawsuits centralized under Judge Rodgers in the Northern District of Florida. Another 13 cases are filed in Delaware state court, although they actually represent 322 plaintiffs. Similarly, 75 claims are filed in New York state court, representing 83 plaintiffs.

California state court has 24 cases currently filed, five are pending in Illinois, two have been filed in Pennsylvania, and one in New Mexico.

The agenda indicates that 2,071 Depo-Provera lawsuits have now been filed, up from roughly 1,000 in late August. At that time, attorneys also reported more than 9,500 additional claims that remained under active investigation, but were not actually filed yet. Judge Rodgers urged lawyers to accelerate the vetting and filing of those cases, which may be contributing to the rapid rise in new complaints.

Depo-Provera Brain Tumor Lawsuits

Early in the litigation, Judge Rodgers ordered the parties to prepare five “pilot” Depo-Provera lawsuits for early trial dates. These bellwether trials are designed to allow plaintiffs and defendants to see how juries are likely to respond to evidence, testimony and arguments likely to be presented throughout the litigation.

As part of the process of preparing those claims, the plaintiffs must first show that it is scientifically feasible that Depo-Provera can cause the development of brain tumors, which is known as general causation. Late last month the parties asked for, and received, additional time to finish general causation disclosures and depositions, with motions challenging general causation expert testimony due by March 22, 2026.

If the plaintiffs establish that there is sufficient evidence for a jury to find general causation between Depo-Provera and meningioma brain tumors, the litigation will proceed to the pilot trials.

While the outcomes of these early trial dates will not be binding on other claims in the federal or state courts, they could be helpful in forming the basis of a Depo-Provera lawsuit settlement agreement to avoid the need for hundreds of individual trials to be scheduled nationwide.

To stay up to date on this litigation, sign up to receive Depo-Provera lawsuit updates sent directly to your inbox.