Pfizer Faces Thousands of Lawsuits Over Birth Control Brain Tumor Claims as Label Adds Meningioma Warning
Thousands of women are now suing pharmaceutical giant Pfizer over claims its popular birth control injection left them with 'life-changing' brain tumors. Lawyers told the Daily Mail exclusively that Pfizer will have to stand trial on December 7, 2026, as more than 2,100 women across the US claim in publicly filed lawsuits that they were not warned that the birth control shot Depo-Provera had been linked to debilitating and potentially incurable, benign brain tumors. Taken by 2 million women every year, Depo-Provera is a decades-old contraceptive method that is injected into the arm or buttocks once every three months, delivering the synthetic hormone progestin to prevent pregnancy. Recent studies in the past two years have found that the shot comes with more than a 500 percent increased risk of developing brain tumors long after users stop taking the medication.
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Label Update and Risk Details for Meningiomas
Last month, Pfizer added a warning label to Depo-Provera about the risk of meningiomas, benign tumors that can grow in the brain and spine for decades undetected. Though they are benign, meaning they are not cancerous, they can still lead to blindness, seizures and memory loss. Virginia Buchanan, partner at law firm Levin Papantonio, which filed a purported class-action lawsuit against Pfizer last year, and court-appointed co-chair of the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee and member of the Trial Committee, told the Daily Mail that the new label 'has been a long time coming' and is 'long overdue.' She urged women who have been diagnosed with a meningioma and who have taken Depo-Provera to contact a lawyer in their area working on the case 'sooner rather than later' to be included in the litigation. She told the Daily Mail: 'It's a critical women's health issue since birth control is something that millions of women rely upon for making their family planning decisions, and it's critical to have something that is safe.' Thousands of women are suing Pfizer over claims its Depo-Provera birth control (pictured here) caused them to develop brain tumors.
Evidence from Studies Links Depo-Provera to Meningiomas
CDC data estimates nearly one in four sexually active women, roughly 40 million, in the US have used Depo-Provera at least once in their lifetime. Depo-Provera contains progestin, a synthetic version of the hormone progesterone, which prevents pregnancy by stopping ovulation and thinning the lining of the uterus. This makes it difficult for an egg to implant itself. Experts believe progestin overstimulates receptors in the meninges, membranes lining the skull and spine, where meningiomas grow. This could lead to cells mutating and forming tumors. A landmark 2024 study in the British Medical Journal compared over 18,000 women who underwent meningioma surgery to healthy control subjects. The team found use of Depo-Provera for 12 or more months was associated with a 5.6-fold increased risk of developing a meningioma. Another study published in 2025 in the journal Expert Opinion on Drug Safety found that the use of Depo-Provera by women of childbearing age for more than one year was associated with a 3.5-fold increased risk of developing an intracranial meningioma compared to the use of birth control pills. Meningiomas grow in the meninges, the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord, and strike 170,000 Americans every year. Nine in 10 are benign, meaning they are not cancerous. However, they can still lead to frightening side effects. Buchanan told the Daily Mail that plaintiffs facing off against Pfizer have reported impaired hearing, vision and smell, along with seizure disorders.
Plaintiffs’ Stories and the Human Toll
Andrea Faulks, a 55-year-old from Alabama, is one of more than 2,100 women suing Pfizer over claims her Depo-Provera birth control gave her a brain tumor. Sherry Brown, of Louisiana, was diagnosed with two meningiomas nearly two decades after she stopped taking Depo-Provera. If her treatments are unsuccessful, she will need brain surgery. The tumors grow slowly, so common symptoms like headaches and coordination issues may take years or even decades to be linked, Buchanan said. Many women also experience cognitive and behavioral shifts that lead family members to take notice first. "We have family members saying [the plaintiffs] are not who they used to be, or our client will say, 'My children are telling me, Mom, you don’t act like you used to act,'" Buchanan told the Daily Mail. "We are seeing some some real and life-changing issues occurring," she added. "We're continuing to get an education about just how traumatic this is to people and how life-changing it can be."
Legal Process and What Happens Next
The lawsuits allege that Pfizer was aware of the link between these birth control injections and brain tumors and that they failed to adequately warn of the risk and promote safer alternatives. 'The basis of this lawsuit is there should have been a warning,' Buchanan said. 'These women who have now been diagnosed, they can't go back and undo or redo what they've been exposed to, but certainly women going forward can.' The trial currently scheduled for December will be for one plaintiff who alleges she developed a meningioma from Depo-Provera, and trials for four other plaintiffs will occur every 60 days after. Pfizer can choose to settle at any point or could move to resolve the claims before trial. Buchanan said: 'This case brings about the opportunity to have a trial, have the experts, have the documents, all of the things that a well-informed jury would need to know to corroborate what we've been contending all along, that this is a product that carries with it a significant risk, and that women should have the choice in choosing something that has less of that.','People should be talking to attorneys sooner rather than later.'
