Lawsuit Alleges Intracranial Meningioma From Depo-Provera Resulted in Need for Lifelong Medical Monitoring

A woman’s Depo-Provera meningioma diagnosis led to multiple brain surgeries and the need for radiation therapy, resulting in permanent hearing loss.

An Oregon woman indicates in a recently filed lawsuit that 15 years of Depo-Provera birth control shots left her with an intracranial meningioma brain tumor, resulting in the need for continued medical monitoring for the rest of her life.

The complaint (PDF) was brought by Sandra Somarakis in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida on May 23, indicating that the drug makers Pfizer, Inc., Pharmacia & Upjohn Co., LLC, Pharmacia LLC, and Greenstone LLC have failed to warn women about the potential side effects of repeated Depo-Provera injections, and the potential risk of developing an intracranial meningioma.

Depo-Provera was first approved in 1992, as a birth control injection that is adminstered every three months, containing medroxyprogesterone acetate, a synthetic form of the hormone progesterone.

It was originally developed by the Upjohn Company, which later became part of Pfizer, but 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.

Over the past year, a growing number of women like Somarakis are now begining to file Depo-Provera lawsuits, alleging that they never would have agreed to receive the injection if they had known the potential health risks they may face.

The litigation has emerged following a study published in March 2024, which linked Depo-Provera to brain tumor risks. The tumors, known as intracranial meningioma, can be life-threatening, and frequently require surgical intervention. Even when surgery is successful, patients may be left with permanent cognitive or neurological impairments.

According to her lawsuit, Somarakis began receiving Depo-Provera injections in 1995, including both brand name and generic versions of the drug. However, over the years she developed frequent and debilitating headaches, her left eye began to protrude, and she began to experience visual disturbances.

In 2008, an MRI revealed that Somarakis had a meningioma that was putting pressure on her left eye socket. This required an “extensive and highly invasive” brain surgery in August 2008, which required resectioning and removal of portions of the tumor and surrounding bone and tissue.

However, the lawsuit indicates that, due to the lack of warnings, Somarakis continued to receive the injections until 2010. That year, she had to undergo a second surgery after residual meningioma was detected.

“To prevent recurrence of the tumor, Plaintiff underwent 29 fractions of radiation therapy over a six-week and six-day period,” the lawsuit states. “This treatment was excruciatingly painful and resulted in several adverse side effects, including permanent hearing loss in her left ear.”

Due to her prolonged usage of Depo-Provera, doctors have told Somarakis that she will require ongoing medical monitoring through regular CT and MRI scans to watch the meningioma for signs of progression.

She presents claims of failure to warn, design defect, negligence, negligent failure to warn, negligent design defect, negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent misrepresentation and breach of warranty.

Depo-Provera Intracranial Meningioma Lawsuits

Although a growing number of women throughout the U.S. are just now beginning to sign up for a Depo-Provera lawsuit, there are already about 300 claims similar to Somarakis’ complaint pending in the federal court system.

The claims have been centralized as part of a Depo-Provera lawsuit MDL (multidistrict litigation) in the Northern District of Florida, where U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers is overseeing coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

In an effort to resolve the litigation quickly, Judge Rodgers is already pushing toward early test trials. She has selected a small group of pilot cases to be prepared to go before juries by the end of 2026 or early 2027.

While 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.