Depo-Provera Shots Triple Brain Tumor Risks Compared to Birth Control Pill: Study

Researchers are calling for further investigations into Depo-Provera side effects, following more than 400 lawsuits being filed in federal courts over meningioma diagnoses.

New findings add to a growing body of research, which shows that Depo-Provera birth control injection side effects raise a woman’s risk of potentially crippling and life-threatening intracranial meningiomas.

The research was published in the medical journal Expert Opinion on Drug Safety on July 3, with data indicating that the injections triple the risk of meningioma brain tumor development in users, strengthening the connections between birth control injections and the risk of illness.

Depo-Provera (medroxyprogesteroneacetate, or MPA) is a birth control injection that is administered every three months, containing medroxyprogesterone acetate, a synthetic form of the hormone progesterone. It is now widely available in both brand name and generic forms. The shots have been used by more than 70 million women worldwide, following years of marketing that promotes the convenience of the quarterly shots over daily birth control pills.

In March 2024, a study linked Depo-Provera shots to increased brain tumor risks, sparking an increasing number of Depo-Provera brain tumor lawsuits ever since. 

Since then, more than 400 Depo-Provera brain tumor lawsuits have been filed in federal courts nationwide. As more women learn about the cause of their injuries, it is widely expected that thousands of claims may ultimately be filed.

For the new study, a Canadian research team conducted a nested case-control study using data from the PharMetrics Plus database from 2006 to 2020.

The researchers, led by Dr. Mahyar Etminan of the University of British Columbia, looked at new users of the Depo-Provera shots and compared them with women who took traditional ethinylestradiol-levonorgestrel (EE-LNG) birth control pills.

According to the findings, women who received Depo-Provera injections for more than a year were three and a half times more likely to develop a brain tumor than those taking oral contraceptives.

“Among women using MPA (Depo-Provera) for more than one year, the adjusted IRR for meningiomas was 3.55 (95% CI: 1.85–6.85), indicating a significantly higher risk compared to EE-LNG (ethinylestradiol-levonorgestrel) users.”

–Dr. Mahyar Etminan, Use of medroxyprogesterone acetate and risk of meningiomas: a comparative safety study, July 2025

Although the researchers found a significant association between MPA use and an elevated risk of meningiomas, they emphasized the need for further studies to validate the results and inform long-term treatment decisions.

Depo-Provera Brain Tumor Lawsuits

The findings come as hundreds of Depo-Provera brain tumor lawsuits are currently consolidated in the Northern District of Florida, where U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers is overseeing the litigation through pretrial proceedings, and is preparing five pilot lawsuits for early trial dates. The trials are meant to help the parties gauge how the Court and juries will respond to testimony and evidence likely to be repeated throughout the litigation.

No trial dates have yet been set. However, with the Depo-Provera lawsuit timeline the Judge has laid out, the first trials may get underway by late 2026 or early 2027.

Although the outcomes of these trials will not be binding on other Depo-Provera lawsuits, they will give the parties a chance to see how juries respond to arguments and testimony that will be repeated throughout the litigation, which may help the parties reach Depo-Provera settlement agreements.

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