Depo-Provera Class Action Lawsuit Seeks Medical Monitoring Due to Brain Tumor Risks

A California woman has brought a class action lawsuit against Pfizer and a number of different drug makers, indicating that she and other women who received the Depo-Provera birth control shot should be monitored for the potential development of brain tumors, and the pharmaceutical companies should be required to pay for it.

The complaint (PDF) was filed by Patricia Bonilla in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on January 17, seeking brain tumor medical monitoring for women residing in multiple states who received 50 mg Depo-Provera injections for at least a year, and have not yet been diagnosed with intracranial meningiomas.

Depo-Provera is a hormonal birth control shot that was first introduced in 1992, containing a synthetic form of the hormone progesterone, known as medroxyprogesterone. Following decades of advertisements that promoted the quarterly injection as a safe and effective means of preventing pregnancy, Depo-Provera has been widely used by more than 70 million women in the U.S.

However, recent studies found that side effects of Depo-Provera may cause meningioma brain tumors to develop in some women, which can be life-threatening and often require surgical intervention.

While Bonilla does not claim that she has experienced a direct injury, the Depo-Provera class action lawsuit indicates that she now requires regular MRI exams and CT scans in the future, to monitor for the development of brain tumors throughout the rest of her life.

The complaint joins a growing number of other Depo-Provera brain tumor lawsuits already being pursued by women diagnosed with meningiomas, each raising similar allegations that the drug makers knew or should have known about the risk for decades, but withheld information and warnings from users and the medical community.

Bonilla indicates that she received at least 20 injections of Depo-Provera or a generic equivalent version of the birth control shot between 2012 and November of 2023.

Although no brain tumor has been detected by Bonilla’s doctors, she now fears such a tumor may develop in the future, like millions of other women who received the injections.

The lawsuit asks the Court to establish a nationwide Depo-Provera medical monitoring class action, for women who received the injections in Arizona, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont or West Virginia, with alternative subclasses proposed for certain specific states.

“As a proximate result of Defendants actions and omissions, Plaintiff and the Class have been, and are presently, at an increased risk of developing intracranial meningiomas, requiring them to incur, both now and in the future, the cost of medically necessary monitoring, diagnostic testing, clinical examinations, and consultations for the early detection of such tumors arising from their use of Depo-Provera for a year or more,” her lawsuit states. “Plaintiff and Class members have suffered a present bodily injury including subcellular injury proximately caused by Defendants’ tortious conduct. Plaintiffs have a legally protected interest in not being exposed to developing intracranial meningiomas. Plaintiff and the Class also have a legally protected interest in avoiding the present and ongoing medical need for expensive medical monitoring, diagnostic testing, clinical examinations, and consultations.”

Those tests can include expensive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, computerized tomography (CT) scans, which Bonilla notes are not part of routine medical care and can result in thousands of dollars of additional medical bills.

Depo-Provera Brain Tumor Lawsuits

In addition Depo-Provera medical monitoring class action lawsuits, the drug makers also face substantial liability in complaints being pursued by women who have already developed a brain tumor from Depo-Provera, and now face devastating health consequences.

Since dozens of individual meningioma lawsuits have already been filed against Pfizer and other drug makers throughout the federal court system, a motion was filed with the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) in November 2024, seeking to consolidate the Depo-Provera brain tumor lawsuits before one judge for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

Oral arguments on this motion will be held on January 30, 2025, at the Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. U.S. Courthouse in Miami, Florida, and both Pfizer and generic manufacturers of the birth control shots have agreed that a Depo-Provera MDL should be established. However, different venues have been proposed as the most convenient Court to oversee the claims.

If the JPML agrees to consolidate the lawsuits into a Depo-Provera MDL, all current and future claims filed in federal court will be transferred to one judge for coordinated discovery, pretrial motions and potentially a series of early bellwether test cases.

While the pretrial proceedings will be managed in a manner similar to a Depo-Provera class action lawsuit, each product liability lawsuit will remain an individual action and if the parties fail to reach Depo-Provera brain tumor settlements or another resolution for the litigation after all pretrial proceedings are concluded, each claim may later be remanded back to the U.S. District Court where it was initially filed for an individual trial in the future.