Depo-Provera Meningioma Side Effects Left Woman With Debilitating Migraines, Lawsuit Claims

Lawsuit alleges complications from brain surgery to remove the tumor also cost the plaintiff her sense of smell and resulted in cognitive problems.

A Tennessee woman has filed a lawsuit against Pfizer and other drug makers, indicating that she was left with permanent injuries after receiving Depo-Provera birth control injections, which resulted in the development of a pituitary meningioma that required her to undergo brain surgery to remove the tumor.

The complaint (PDF) was brought by Maryann Turk in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida on June 1. It names Pfizer Inc., Pharmacia & Upjohn Co. LLC, and Pharmacia LLC as the defendants.

Turk claims that scientific studies established a link between the ingredients and hormones in Depo-Provera and brain tumor development years before the injections reached the market. She goes on to allege that while she and other recipients of the shots did not know that, Pfizer did.

Depo-Provera Brain Tumors

Depo-Provera is a hormonal birth control injection containing medroxyprogesterone acetate, a synthetic form of the hormone progesterone. Approved in 1992, it was originally developed by Pfizer before being released by other drug manufacturers in generic form. The injections are supposed to work by inhibiting ovulation, thickening cervical mucus to block sperm, thinning the uterine lining to prevent a fertilized egg from implanting, and thus preventing pregnancy.

The injections are administered to recipients four times a year and have been used by tens of millions of women worldwide.

However, The BMJ published a French study in March 2024, which found that women receiving Depo-Provera injections faced a more than five-fold increased risk of intracranial meningioma, a form of brain tumor that can grow when exposed to certain hormones commonly used in birth control products.

That study, and others, have sparked a wave of Depo-Provera meningioma lawsuits from women across the United States. Each complaint indicates Pfizer and other drug makers failed to provide adequate warnings about the injections’ brain tumor risks, which can cause severe cognitive problems as well as other adverse health conditions, some of which can become life threatening.

Depo-Provera Meningioma Side Effect Allegations

Turk indicates her lawsuit that Depo-Provera injections were first administered for the purpose of birth control in 1995, and she continued to receive the Depo shots regularly until 2000.

In July 2025, a CT scan revealed Turk was suffering from a pituitary meningioma, which is a form of brain tumor that develops adjacent to the pituitary gland and optic nerves. She underwent extensive brain surgery in January 2026 to remove it.

Following the surgery and recovery period, Turk continued suffering from debilitating migraines, loss of her sense of smell and cognitive impairment. These problems could potentially persist for the rest of her life, she claims.

The complaint indicates that adequate warning could have led to the choice of another form of contraception, or at least allowed her doctors to diagnosis the meningioma earlier if they had been told about the importance of monitoring for brain tumors. Instead, the lawsuit claims manufacturers chose profits over patient safety and downplayed the risks.

“Furthermore, despite studies being published over the course of decades, providing evidence of the meningioma-related risks and dangers of progesterone and progestins specifically Depo-Provera, Defendants have failed to adequately investigate the threat Depo-Provera poses to patients’ well-being or warn the medical community and patients of the risk of intracranial meningioma and sequelae related thereto.”

– Maryann Turk v. Pfizer Inc. et al.

Turk 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 compensatory damages for physical pain and mental suffering, inconvenience, loss of enjoyment of life, medical and incidental expenses, and loss of earnings and earning capacity.

Depo-Provera Meningioma Lawsuits

Pfizer faces more than 6,000 lawsuits over meningioma from Depo-Provera in federal and state courts nationwide. Turk’s complaint will be consolidated with all other federally filed Depo-Provera lawsuits in the Northern District of Florida, before U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers, who is overseeing coordinated discovery, pretrial proceedings and preparations for early bellwether test trials.

Judge Rodgers previously ordered the parties to prepare five “pilot” cases for these early trials, which are designed to give participants a chance to see how juries will interpret testimony and evidence in cases that represent the majority of circumstances throughout the litigation.

The first Depo-Provera bellwether trial is currently scheduled to begin on December 7, with additional trials slated for 2027. While the outcomes of these trials are not binding on other women pursuing claims, they will be closely watched since the juries’ determinations could play a significant role in any potential Depo-Provera settlement negotiations.

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