Eye Problems Led to Discovery of Depo-Provera Brain Tumor, Lawsuit Claims

MRI scans found a Depo-Provera brain tumor 12 years after a California woman stopped receiving the birth control shots.

A California woman indicates in a recently filed lawsuit that she first learned about the potentially harmful side effects of Depo-Provera birth control shots when her vision started to go, instead of through brain tumor warnings that the drug makers should have added to the drug’s label.

The complaint (PDF) was brought by Debra Morrow in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on November 20, naming Pfizer Inc., Viatris Inc., Greenstone LLC, Pharmacia & Upjohn Co. LLC, and Pharmacia LLC as defendants, indicating that the drug makers knew or should have known about the Depo-Provera brain tumor risks, but withheld critical information about the risk from women and the medical community.

Morrow indicates that she began receiving birth control shots of Depo-Provera in 1996, and continued receiving quarterly injections until 2005. She is one of an estimated 70 million women who received the injections, after being told by the manufacturers that it carries few serious side effects, compared to other forms of contraception.

However, recent studies have linked the birth control shot to a nearly six-fold increased risk of causing meningioma brain tumors, leading Morrow and a growing number of women to now pursue Depo-Provera brain tumor lawsuits, indicating that they could have avoided a meningioma if adequate instructions and warnings about the foreseeable risks had been provided.

Morrow indicates that she continued to receive the birth control shots for nine years, unaware that progressively worsening symptoms she was experiencing were signs of a brain tumor from Depo-Provera.

For one thing, the problems really did not begin affecting her physically until 2017, approximately 12 years after she received her last injection. At that point she began experiencing swelling in her left eye, and drooping of the left eye lid, which led Morrow to see an eye doctor, who then referred her to the hospital emergency department.

Morrow underwent an MRI that revealed she had an atypical right frontal intracranial meningioma, which measured about 2 cm around. In late August 2017, she underwent a right frontal craniotomy to have the tumor removed.

In 2018, another MRI discovered a buildup of fluid over the surgical site, which was discovered to be cerebrospinal fluid.

“Plaintiff remains under close medical surveillance, requiring regular imaging and evaluations,” the lawsuit states. “Plaintiff was unaware of the association between Depo-Provera and the development of meningiomas until very recently, following the publication of a large case-control study in France published in March 2024.”

Depo-Provera Brain Tumor Risks Should Have Been Predicted

The lawsuit notes that the link between meningioma and progesterone, like that administered in the Depo-Provera birth control shot, has been known for decades.

“Since at least as early as 1989, researchers have also been aware of the relationship between progesterone-inhibiting agents and the growth rate of meningioma,” Morrow’s lawsuit notes. “Numerous studies published in the decades since have presented similar findings on the negative correlation between progesterone-inhibiting agents and meningioma. Relatedly, a number of studies published in the interim have reported on the positive correlation between a progesterone and/or progestin medication and the incidence and growth rate of meningioma.”

Morrow presents claims of strict product liability failure to warn, strict product liability design defect, negligence, negligent failure to warn, negligent design defect, negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent misrepresentation, breach of warranty, and seeks both compensatory and punitive damages.