{"id":21822,"date":"2024-11-14T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naturalwomanhood.org\/?p=21822"},"modified":"2025-10-09T04:45:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T09:45:05","slug":"les-proces-saccumulent-sur-le-lien-entre-le-depo-proveras-et-les-tumeurs-cerebrales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naturalwomanhood.org\/fr\/lawsuits-amassing-over-depo-proveras-link-to-brain-tumors\/","title":{"rendered":"Les proc\u00e8s s'accumulent sur le lien entre le Depo-Provera et les tumeurs c\u00e9r\u00e9brales"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Editor’s Updates: <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of October 6, 2025, “there are now more than 1,300 Depo shot lawsuits being pursued in both state and federal courts nationwide, each raising similar allegations that women have been left with severe neurological damage, often resulting in the need for brain surgery and life-long medical monitoring,” according to AboutLawsuits.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On February 7, 2025, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) consolidated the Depo-Provera meningioma lawsuits into multidistrict litigation. This consolidated approach is designed to\u00a0\u201cavoid conflicting pretrial rulings from different courts, avoid duplicative discovery, and serve the convenience of common witnesses, parties, and the judicial system.\u201d<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On February 23, 2025, Florida U.S. District Judge Casey M. Rodgers announced that “five ‘pilot’ lawsuits [had been] chosen to go through case-specific discovery and early trial dates, which will be used to help gauge how juries will respond to evidence and testimony likely to be used throughout the litigation,” according to a commentary<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you type \u201cDepo-Provera\u201d into Google, what pops up is not what you\u2019d expect to see amidst a major lawsuit implicating one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies, concerning a drug that tens of millions of women around the world are currently using as birth control. What you\u2019d see is\u2026 not much. Unless you specifically search for information on the ongoing Depo-Provera lawsuits, (which allege that drugmaker Pfizer failed to notify patients and doctors of the connection between Depo and a specific type of brain tumor), most of what you\u2019ll find are health websites like the Cleveland Clinic<\/a> and Planned Parenthood singing the birth control shot\u2019s praises. Pfizer<\/a> itself emphasizes the inject-it-and-forget-it convenience of the \u201cDepo shot\u201d in its product materials. But what Pfizer hasn\u2019t<\/em> said, to doctors and patients alike, is the reason they\u2019re being sued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Depo-Provera?<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before we discuss the Pfizer lawsuit, let’s take a step back. What IS Depo-Provera? From our Natural Womanhood primer<\/a> on Depo, \u201cDepo-Provera (produced by Pfizer) is the brand name of the drug medroxyprogesterone acetate and is the only form of the birth control shot available in the United States\u2026 As a progestin-only form of birth control, Depo-Provera prevents pregnancy by suppressing ovulation and thickening the cervical mucus to prevent sperm from coming into contact with an egg. It\u2019s recommended as a highly effective form of birth control that eliminates the need to take a daily pill and does not include estrogen, which can cause blood clots…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Depo\u2019s sordid history<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s lots not <\/em>to love about Depo, including its increased risk of weight gain, increased risk of breast cancer, increased transmissibility of HIV<\/a>, and more. Far from a secret or surprise, the most damning evidence against Depo has been available for decades<\/em>. The link between Depo-Provera and cancer can be traced back to 1978 when the FDA originally denied Upjohn Co (later acquired by Pfizer), approval of Depo for contraceptive use, stating<\/a>, \u201cNever has a drug whose target population is entirely healthy people been shown to be so pervasively carcinogenic [with cervical and breast cancer] in animals as has Depo-Provera\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNever has a drug whose target population is entirely healthy people been shown to be so pervasively carcinogenic [with cervical and breast cancer] in animals as has Depo-Provera\u201d. <\/p>FDA denial of Upjohn Co’s Depo-Provera application, 1978<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Despite the FDA\u2019s repeated refusals to approve Depo-Provera for contraceptive use, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) distributed Depo to millions of women in impoverished countries, particularly in Africa and South America. A 1979 Mother Jones<\/em> expos\u00e9<\/a> summed up: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo the Third World consumer, a new product from the U.S. may seem to represent the latest in scientific research. But the overseas consumer of Depo doesn\u2019t know that the \u2018latest research\u2019 is what prevented the contraceptive from being approved for use in the United States, and that is why it is being dumped.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1979 Mother Jones<\/em> article spelled out Depo’s risks<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Among the potential complications of Depo use, the 1979 Mother Jones <\/em>article also mentioned that \u201cDepo-Provera causes nodules in the breasts and cancer in the reproductive organs of test animals\u2026.\u2018irregular bleeding disturbances,\u2019 which have been described in one medical journal as \u2018menstrual chaos\u2026 [reduced] resistance to infection\u2026 weight gain, headaches and dizziness.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s more \u201cIts effects are not readily reversible: use may be followed by long-term or even permanent sterility. If injected into a pregnant woman (and almost every field study has reported the accidental injection of pregnant women), it can cause birth defects, especially congenital heart defects, and, in the case of female fetuses, masculinization and enlargement of the clitoris.\u201d And these abuses didn\u2019t just happen overseas: in addition to experimentation on poor women in foreign countries, Depo was prescribed as a contraceptive to Native American women<\/a> long before FDA approval. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the myriad evidence of risk and its history of unethical research practices, Depo-Provera was finally approved by the FDA in 1992 as a contraceptive, provided that Pfizer listed the risk of bone density loss and the possibility of breast and cervical cancers on Depo’s packaging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How is Depo-Provera connected to meningiomas? <\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Now, back to those modern-day Pfizer meningioma lawsuits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meningiomas are tumors on the membranes, or meninges, that cover the brain. Most, but not all<\/em>, meningiomas are benign or non-cancerous<\/a>, with 10-15% being cancerous. Although a \u201cbenign\u201d tumor may sound less threatening than a cancerous tumor, according to Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital, \u201cdepending on location and growth rate, a benign meningioma brain tumor may impinge on vital nerves or compress the brain, causing disability. They may even become life threatening.\u201d The tumor location determines the symptoms experienced, but the most common are headaches, blurred vision, seizures, numbness or weakness, difficulty with speech, and memory or hearing loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often meningiomas grow slowly, causing a subtle onset of these symptoms before the tumor is finally discovered. As they typically do grow slowly, once found and if still small, doctors will monitor the tumor with regular CT or MRI scans. Surgery or radiation may become necessary in order to completely remove the tumor depending on the size and location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it\u2019s still uncertain what<\/em> causes meningiomas to form, women are at higher risk than men. There is also a correlation between meningioma and increased radiation exposure, certain inherited genetic conditions, and using synthetic progesterone (i.e., progestin) or estrogen-based medications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The connection between Depo-Provera and meningiomas came to light decades ago<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Almost 10 years before<\/em> Depo-Provera was approved by the FDA, there was a study published by the European Journal of Cancer & Clinical Oncology <\/em>in 1986 on the relationship between progestins and meningiomas. Out of 67 meningioma tissue samples from 64 different patients, 80% of the samples had a very high concentration of progesterone receptors, i.e., certain proteins that act like magnets for progesterone (and its synthetic counterpart, progestin). The Depo shot, with its high concentration of progestin, may not only cause <\/em>these usually-benign tumors, but also help them grow larger with each subsequent dose [2].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What started the current lawsuit over Depo-Provera and meningioma risk?<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The impetus for the current lawsuits against Pfizer concerning Depo-Provera, which will likely be consolidated into what\u2019s called multidistrict litigation, was the March 2024 publication of a French study<\/a> comparing the use of different types of progestins with the subsequent likelihood of meningiomas forming [3]. It found that women who took the Depo shot for 12 months or more were 5.6 times more likely to develop meningiomas than women who were not on Depo<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The French study found that women who took the Depo shot for 12 months or more were 5.6 times more likely to develop meningiomas than women who were not on Depo. <\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In fact, out of the 8 different types of progestins that were tested for correlation with meningiomas, medroxyprogesterone acetate, the specific progestin found in Depo-Provera, by far carried the most <\/em>significant risk of meningiomas [2]. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pfizer is being sued for \u201cfailure to warn\u201d<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The lawsuits against Pfizer allege<\/a> several things, including that the drugmaker rushed Depo-Provera to market without conducting adequate long-term safety studies. They further claim that Pfizer failed to address and even purposely downplayed adverse event reports<\/a>. Pfizer is also accused of \u201cfailure to warn,\u201d i.e., despite having evidence of meningioma risk, the drug company never updated product warning labels to reflect that risk, or notified doctors and pharmacists of the risk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to one Chicago-based personal injury lawyer, failure to warn lawsuits stand on the grounds that pharmaceutical companies have a duty to \u201cwarn via intermediaries<\/a>\u2013such as pharmacists and physicians. If they fail to warn these intermediaries of known side effects, then the manufacturer is responsible for any effects that occur.\u201d And, according to the Lawsuit Information Center website<\/a>, failure to warn also \u201cmeans that even if the drug itself is not inherently defective, a manufacturer can still be held liable if they fail to adequately disclose serious side effects or risks that are reasonably foreseeable.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the case of Depo-Provera,\u201d continues the Lawsuit Information Center, \u201cthe link between the drug and meningiomas was not listed as a potential risk or side effect in the drug\u2019s warning label, at least not in the United States. Depo shot lawsuits will argue that Pfizer knew or should have known of the risks, so its failure to update its warning label to reflect this potential danger makes a failure to warn claim.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is Pfizer really at fault?<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Had the company not known about the relationship between progestins and meningiomas, a \u201cfailure to warn\u201d lawsuit might not stand. However, the studies mentioned in this article are just some examples of decades-old research, of which it is highly unlikely Pfizer was unaware. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s take a look at what Pfizer has to say about its own drug, from the patient information section of their Depo-Provera page<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Depo-Provera CI can cause serious side effects, including:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n