Depo-Provera

People usually call us with a routine rather than a legal theory: the appointment every three months, the years it went on without anyone raising a brain tumor, and then a headache, a scan and a word nobody in the family had said out loud before. Whether that history adds up to a claim turns on the medication record, the imaging and the dates — and finding that out is our work, not yours.

Depo-Provera and medroxyprogesterone acetate

Depo-Provera CI is an injectable contraceptive. Its active ingredient is medroxyprogesterone acetate, a progestin — a synthetic form of the hormone progesterone. The contraceptive injection was approved in the United States in 1992 and is given as a 150 mg intramuscular injection once every three months3.

That three-month schedule is the reason this case type is measured in years rather than doses. Someone who used the injection through their twenties and thirties may have had forty or fifty injections without ever thinking of it as a long-term medication. The prescribing information itself says the injection is not recommended as a birth control method for longer than two years unless other options are considered inadequate3.

The names in a chart are rarely the name on the box. Any of these may describe the same medication or its close relatives, and all of them are worth mentioning when you call:

• Depo-Provera
• Depo-Provera CI
• Depo-SubQ Provera 104
• Medroxyprogesterone acetate
• Depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA)
• MPA
• An authorized generic version of the injection
• “The shot,” “the birth control shot,” “the three-month shot”

The litigation concerns the injectable products. It is not about progesterone itself, and it is not about every hormonal contraceptive — the largest study in this area found no excess meningioma risk for levonorgestrel intrauterine systems, for progesterone or for dydrogesterone1.

Why there are Depo-Provera lawsuits

The claims are warning claims. They allege that repeated use of injectable medroxyprogesterone acetate can cause meningiomas, that the manufacturers knew or should have known of the risk, that the warnings given to patients and prescribers were inadequate, and that a lower-dose subcutaneous version of the injection was available and safer4.

Defendants dispute all of it. Pfizer and the related Pharmacia entities maintain that the medication is safe and effective, and the settlement reached in the federal litigation contains no admission of fault or liability8. Nothing on this page should be read as a finding that anyone did anything wrong; that is what the litigation exists to decide.

What the record actually says

France, 2024

A national case-control study of 18,061 women who had intracranial surgery for meningioma, each matched to five controls, reported an excess risk of meningioma with use of injectable medroxyprogesterone acetate — odds ratio 5.55 (95% confidence interval 2.27 to 13.56) — on nine exposed cases. The authors reported that the excess risk was driven by prolonged use of a year or more, and described the finding for the injectable contraceptive as an important new one1.

United States, 2025

A retrospective cohort study drawn from a national database of 68 health care organizations reported a relative risk of 2.43 (95% CI 1.77 to 3.33) for a meningioma diagnosis among women who received the injection, with the risk confined to people with more than four years of exposure or who started after age 31. The same authors calculated a number needed to harm of 1,152 and concluded that the overall clinical risk is low2.

The label, 2025

In December 2025 the U.S. prescribing information for Depo-Provera CI added a meningioma warning. It states that cases of meningiomas have been reported following repeated administration of medroxyprogesterone acetate, primarily with long-term use, and directs prescribers to monitor patients for signs and symptoms of meningioma and to discontinue the medication if a meningioma is diagnosed3.

What none of it settles

An epidemiological association, a label change and an individual lawsuit are three different things. A study describes what happened across a population. A warning describes what a prescriber should now do. Neither one establishes that this medication caused a particular person’s tumor.

That last line is not a lawyer hedging. General causation — whether the medication can cause meningioma at all — is still being litigated in the federal court, with an evidentiary hearing set for September 18, 20269. Individual causation is decided case by case, on records.

A warning added in 2025 does not tell you what anyone knew in 2005. That is the question the litigation asks.

Depo-Provera litigation: how we got here

The chronology behind the current cases

1. 1992

   The contraceptive injection is approved in the United States as a 150 mg intramuscular dose given every three months3.

2. March 2024

   A French national case-control study of progestogens and intracranial meningioma is published in The BMJ, reporting an excess risk for prolonged use of injectable medroxyprogesterone acetate1.

3. February 2025

   The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation centralizes the federal cases as In re: Depo-Provera (Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate) Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 3140, before Judge M. Casey Rodgers in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida4.

4. November 2025

   A U.S. cohort study in JAMA Neurology reports a relative risk of 2.43 for meningioma diagnosis after the injection, concentrated in longer exposures and later starting ages, with a high number needed to harm2.

5. December 2025

   The U.S. prescribing information for Depo-Provera CI is revised to add a meningioma warning directing monitoring and discontinuation on diagnosis3.

6. February 2026

   A systematic review and meta-analysis in EClinicalMedicine pools six studies of injectable medroxyprogesterone acetate and reports an odds ratio of 2.68 (95% CI 1.72 to 4.19), rating the certainty of that evidence low5.

7. June 2026

   Plaintiffs’ leadership counsel announce a settlement of a majority of the claims in the MDL and in New York state court. The court vacates the schedule for the pilot cases and cancels the December trial6.

8. July 2026

   A Master Settlement Agreement is signed. It is a private agreement, not a class action settlement, and the parties estimate that roughly 80% of MDL plaintiffs will be eligible to participate6.

9. August 2026

   The court appoints a settlement administrator to run eligibility determinations, review submissions and coordinate payment7, and enters a separate order governing the cases that continue in litigation8.

10. September 2026

    The hearing on general causation and the parties’ Rule 702 motions is set for September 18, 2026 — rulings that will apply to cases outside the settlement rather than to those inside it69.

Cases are still being filed, at a reduced rate. As of late July 2026 the federal docket held 6,289 member actions, alongside separate state court proceedings in New York, Delaware, California and several other states6.

The federal Depo-Provera MDL

A multidistrict litigation, or MDL, is an administrative device. When many federal lawsuits share the same factual questions, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation can send them to one judge for the pretrial stage — discovery, expert challenges, dispositive motions — so the same work is not done 6,000 times in 90 courthouses.

The panel created MDL No. 3140 in February 2025 and assigned it to Judge M. Casey Rodgers in the Northern District of Florida. It found the cases shared common questions4:

• Whether Depo-Provera causes meningioma
• Whether the defendants knew of the alleged risk
• Whether they failed to adequately warn of that risk
• Whether they failed to promote a safer alternative, the lower-dose subcutaneous injection

Two things follow from that structure, and both matter to a caller. First, the federal cases move on one schedule rather than yours, which is why the answer to “how long will this take” is usually a description of the docket rather than a date. Second, an MDL is not a class action: each case remains the individual’s own case, and settling one does not settle anyone else’s.

Meningiomas and Depo-Provera

A meningioma is a tumor that arises from the meninges, the layers of tissue that cover the brain and spinal cord. Most meningiomas are not cancerous, and describing one as benign is accurate as a matter of pathology. It is also the least useful sentence in the chart, because a non-cancerous tumor in a fixed space can still press on the brain, the optic nerves or the vessels around them.

What tends to decide how serious a meningioma is are location, size and rate of growth. A small tumor found incidentally may be watched for years with repeat imaging. One at the skull base or near the optic nerve may cause vision loss, seizures, headaches or weakness, and may be treated with surgery, radiation or both. Some people have more than one.

The terms that turn up in the imaging and pathology reports sort meningiomas in several overlapping ways:

• Non-malignant, or benign
• Malignant, the uncommon aggressive form
• Intracranial, arising inside the skull
• Spinal, arising along the spinal cord
• Multiple meningiomas, more than one tumor
• By WHO grade, usually 1, 2 or 3
• By location, such as the skull base or the sagittal sinus
• By histologic type, such as meningothelial

None of these labels decides a legal claim on its own. They matter because the litigation is about intracranial meningioma specifically, and because the grade, the location and the treatment are what a medical review has to work from4.

Who may be considered for a Depo-Provera claim review

There is no single checklist that answers this, and any firm that hands you one is guessing. What a review looks at is the medication record, the diagnosis and the dates between them.

What a review looks at

Documented use

That the injection was actually received, and roughly when and for how long. Both studies behind this litigation found the association in prolonged use rather than in a single injection12, so duration is usually the first question we ask.

A meningioma diagnosis

A meningioma identified on imaging, on a pathology report, or both. The exact diagnosis in the chart is part of the review rather than a detail — “brain tumor” in a discharge summary is not the same as a documented meningioma.

The timing between them

When the diagnosis came relative to the last injection. The federal court has created separate categories for claims that turn on this timing, so the dates carry real weight8.

When a claim is brought

Deadlines to bring a claim vary by state and by circumstance, and the federal court has also drawn a line based on when an action was commenced8. This is the single most common reason a claim that looks strong on the medicine cannot be brought at all.

Other explanations

Prior radiation to the head, other progestin medications and family history are all part of the picture. They do not automatically end a review; they change what the review has to account for.

We are not going to print a deadline here and invite you to rely on it. Tell us roughly when this happened and we can tell you whether time is a problem.

Families also contact us about someone who used the injection and has since died. That review needs more information rather than less, including the date and cause of death, and the death certificate may be needed to confirm what was recorded.

Information that can help with a Depo-Provera review

Nothing on this list is required before you call. It is what the review eventually needs, and knowing that in advance sometimes shortens the wait by months.

About the medication:

• The clinic, pharmacy or provider that gave the injections
• Roughly when the injections started and when they stopped
• How long the injections continued, in years if not in dates
• Whether it was the intramuscular injection or the lower-dose subcutaneous one, if you know
• Any pharmacy or insurance records showing the injections
• Any other hormonal medications used before, during or after

About the meningioma:

• When the tumor was found, and what prompted the scan
• The imaging reports — MRI or CT — and where the imaging was done
• Any pathology report, if there was surgery or a biopsy
• The treating neurosurgeon, neurologist or oncologist
• What treatment happened: surveillance, surgery, radiation or a combination
• Ongoing symptoms and their effect on work and daily life

What happens after you contact CBW Law

Five steps, in this order

1. Medication

   Start with the injection: roughly when it started, how long it went on, and who gave it. Plain language is fine; so is an incomplete chronology.

2. Medical history

   We ask about other hormonal medications, prior radiation to the head, family history and anything else that a medical review will have to account for.

3. Diagnosis

   We look at what was actually diagnosed and when — meningioma, its location and grade where that is documented, and the treatment that followed.

4. Records

   Imaging, pathology, pharmacy and insurance records get requested and read. This is the stage the case usually waits on, and the stage we do rather than you.

5. Case review

   The medication history, the diagnosis, the dates and the applicable law are reviewed together. Meeting the general description on this page does not guarantee that a claim can be filed or that compensation will be recovered, and we will tell you plainly what we find.

Plain English

Medical, Health & Insurance

A Depo-Provera review needs more than the fact of a brain tumor. It needs the medication history, the imaging, the exact diagnosis and the dates — and all of that arrives in two vocabularies, neither of them yours: the clinical language in the chart, and the coverage language in the letters from the health plan. Here is what the words mean, so the paperwork is readable before it becomes decisive.

The medication, in plain English

Medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA)

A progestin, meaning a synthetic form of the hormone progesterone. It is the active ingredient in the injection at the center of this litigation.

Depo-Provera CI

The injectable contraceptive form of medroxyprogesterone acetate, given as a 150 mg intramuscular injection every three months3.

Depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA)

The clinical name for the same thing. “Depot” describes a formulation that releases the medication slowly after a single injection, which is what makes a three-month schedule possible.

Depo-SubQ Provera 104

A lower-dose version given as a subcutaneous rather than intramuscular injection. Plaintiffs in the federal litigation contend it is the safer alternative that should have been promoted4.

Authorized generic

A version of a brand-name medication sold without the brand name, under the brand’s own approval. Charts and pharmacy records may name either one.

The diagnosis, in plain English

Meningioma

A tumor arising from the meninges, the layers of tissue covering the brain and spinal cord.

Intracranial meningioma

A meningioma inside the skull. This is the injury at the center of the federal litigation4.

Benign, or non-malignant

Not cancerous. Accurate, and not the same as harmless: a non-cancerous tumor in a confined space can still press on the brain or the nerves around it.

Malignant

The uncommon aggressive form, more likely to grow quickly or recur after treatment.

WHO grade

A pathology grading scale, usually 1 through 3, describing how the tumor’s cells look under a microscope and how it is expected to behave.

How a diagnosis is documented

MRI

Magnetic resonance imaging. The scan that most often finds and follows a meningioma. Reports usually describe location, size and whether contrast was used.

CT scan

Computed tomography. Faster and more widely available than MRI, often the first scan done in an emergency department, and sometimes where a tumor is first seen.

Pathology report

The report describing tissue examined under a microscope. Where there was surgery or a biopsy, this is usually what confirms the tumor type and grade.

Resection

Surgical removal of the tumor, in whole or in part. Reports may describe how much was removed, which affects both treatment and prognosis.

Surveillance

Watching a tumor with repeat imaging rather than treating it immediately. A surveillance record is still a medical record, and it often contains the best timeline of growth.

Records, insurance and billing

Finding your Depo-Provera records

Injections are documented in more places than people expect: the clinic chart, the pharmacy that dispensed the syringe, and the insurer that paid for it. Three thin records often reconstruct a history one missing chart cannot.

Authorization for release of records

The signed form that lets a provider send records to someone else. Expect to sign more than one, because imaging centers, hospitals and physician groups usually hold separate files.

Explanation of benefits (EOB)

Not a bill. It is the health plan’s account of what was billed, what it allowed, what it paid and what it says is still owed. Keep every one of them — together they map where treatment happened and when.

Health insurance records

Claims histories and pharmacy benefit records can show a three-month injection schedule going back years, which is often the cleanest available proof of duration of use.

Educational only. These are plain-language summaries of words that turn up in charts, letters and bills — not clinical definitions, not medical advice, not a diagnosis of anyone, and not a description of what any particular policy covers. For what a diagnosis means, ask the clinician who made it. For what a plan covers, read the plan, and bring it to us if it is not clear.

Questions

Frequently asked Depo-Provera questions

The questions callers actually open with, answered the way we would answer them on the phone.

What is Depo-Provera?

Depo-Provera CI is an injectable contraceptive. Its active ingredient is medroxyprogesterone acetate, a progestin. In the United States it is given as a 150 mg intramuscular injection once every three months3.

What is the connection between Depo-Provera and meningiomas?

Researchers have reported an association between prolonged use of injectable medroxyprogesterone acetate and intracranial meningioma. A French national case-control study published in The BMJ in 2024 reported an odds ratio of 5.55 for the injectable form, driven by use of a year or more1. A U.S. cohort study published in JAMA Neurology in 2025 reported a relative risk of 2.43, concentrated in exposures longer than four years2.

In December 2025 the U.S. prescribing information added a meningioma warning directing prescribers to monitor for signs and symptoms and to discontinue the medication if a meningioma is diagnosed3.

Does that mean Depo-Provera causes meningiomas?

No. Those studies are observational. They describe an association across large populations; they do not establish that the medication caused any particular person’s tumor, and their authors say so — the U.S. study calculated that more than a thousand people would need to be exposed for one additional meningioma, and concluded the overall clinical risk is low2.

Whether the medication can cause meningioma at all is still being litigated. The federal court has an evidentiary hearing on general causation and the parties’ expert challenges set for September 18, 20269.

What types of tumors are involved in this litigation?

The federal litigation centralizes claims by people who allege they suffered intracranial meningiomas — meningiomas inside the skull — after using the injection or a generic version of it4.

What if I only used Depo-Provera once or twice?

Tell us anyway, but understand what the research reports. Both of the main studies found the association in prolonged use — a year or more in the French study, more than four years in the U.S. study12. A very short exposure history is unlikely to support a claim.

What if I do not remember the dates?

That is normal, and it is a records problem rather than a reason not to call. A three-month injection schedule tends to leave a trail in clinic charts, pharmacy records and insurance claims histories. Obtaining those records is our work, not yours.

My tumor was described as noncancerous. Does that matter?

Most meningiomas are not cancerous, and that alone does not end a claim. What matters more is the location, the size, the treatment and the effect on daily life. A benign tumor that cost someone their vision or required brain surgery is a serious injury by any measure.

Is the Depo-Provera MDL a class action?

No. An MDL is not the same thing as a class action. In an MDL, individual lawsuits are transferred to one judge for coordinated pretrial handling, but each case remains the individual’s own case. In a class action, one case is brought on behalf of a group.

That distinction has a practical consequence here. Because this litigation is not a class action, the 2026 settlement was not subject to a court fairness determination; it is a private agreement between the parties, and eligibility is defined by its own terms6.

Has the Depo-Provera litigation been resolved?

Not entirely. In June 2026 plaintiffs’ leadership counsel announced a settlement of a majority of the claims in the federal MDL and in New York state court, and a Master Settlement Agreement was signed in July 2026. The parties estimate roughly 80% of MDL plaintiffs will be eligible to participate, with registration expected to be completed in November 2026 and payments beginning to roll out in the first quarter of 20276.

The rest of the litigation is still pending. The court has entered a separate order governing cases that are not eligible or that do not participate8, and the outstanding rulings on preemption and general causation will apply to those cases6. State court proceedings continue as well.

What information should I have before contacting CBW Law?

Nothing, strictly speaking. If you have it, the useful pieces are roughly when the injections started and stopped, who gave them, when the meningioma was found, and what treatment followed. If you have none of that, call anyway and we will start with what you remember.

This page is general information about how Depo-Provera claims work. It is not legal advice, it does not create an attorney-client relationship, and it is not medical advice about anyone’s diagnosis or treatment. If something here sounds like your history, the useful next step is a conversation about the facts.