--- title: "400 Women Are Suing Pfizer Over Birth Control Shot That Allegedly Gave Them Brain Tumors" description: "Pfizer's Depo-Provera shot has been linked to brain tumors — and hundreds of women are suing the pharmaceutical giant over it." date: "2025-06-01" modified: "2025-06-01" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/women-suing-pfizer-depo-provera" categories: - "Brain" - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "birth control" - "brain tumors" - "lawsuit" - "pfizer" --- # 400 Women Are Suing Pfizer Over Birth Control Shot That Allegedly Gave Them Brain Tumors ![Pfizer's Depo-Provera shot has been linked to brain tumors — and hundreds of women are suing the pharmaceutical giant over it.]() *\Image: Beata Zawrzel / NurPhoto via Getty / Futurism\* Recent research has linked [Pfizer's widely-used Depo-Provera birth control shot]() to massively increased risk of developing brain tumors — and hundreds of women are suing the pharmaceutical giant over it. According to a [press release filed on behalf]() of the roughly 400 plaintiffs in the class action suit, the lawsuit claims that Pfizer and other companies that made generic versions of the injectable contraceptive knew of the link between the shot and the dangerous tumors, but didn't properly warn users. The suit follows a study [published by the *British Medical Journal*]() last year that found that people who took the progestin-based shot for a year or more were up to 5.6 times more likely to develop meningioma, a slow-building brain tumor that forms, [per the Cleveland Clinic](), on the meninges, or layers of tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord. Though Pfizer attached warning labels about meningioma to Depo-Provera [sold in Canada in 2015]() and [the UK](), [Europe](), and [South Africa]() after the 2024 study was published, no such label was deployed in the United States — a failure which according to the lawsuit is "inconsistent \[with\] global safety standards." In an [interview with the website *DrugWatch*](), one of the suit's plaintiffs, who was identified by the initials TC, said that she had been "told how great Depo-Provera was" and decided to start it after an unplanned pregnancy that occurred when she'd taken the [since-discontinued birth control pill]() Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo. "I thought it would be more reliable and convenient since I wouldn’t have to take it daily," TC told the site, referencing the four annual injections Depo-Provera requires. "I had no idea it would lead to such serious health problems." After being on the contraceptive shot for three years — and experiencing intense headaches, months-long uterine bleeding, and weight gain — the woman finally consulted her doctor and was diagnosed with meningioma. She's since been undergoing treatment and experienced some relief, but even that experience has been "physically and emotionally draining" because she has to get regular MRIs to monitor the tumor, which likely isn't fatal but still greatly affects her quality of life. "It’s a constant worry that the tumor might grow," TC said, "and the appointments feel never-ending." That fear was echoed by others who [spoke to the *Daily Mail*]() about their meningioma diagnoses after taking Depo-Provera. Unlike TC, Andrea Faulks of Alabama hadn't been on the shots for years when she learned of her brain tumors, which caused her years of anguish. Faulks told the British website that she'd begun taking the medication back in 1993, the [year after it was approved]() by the FDA in the United States. She stopped taking it only a few years later, but spent decades having splitting headaches and experiencing dizziness and tremors. After being dismissed by no fewer than six doctors, the woman finally got an MRI last summer and learned that she had a brain tumor — and is now undergoing radiation to shrink it after all this time. "I know this is something I'm going to have to live with for the rest of my life, as long as I live," Faulks told the *Daily Mail*. Currently, the class action case against Pfizer on behalf of women like Faulks and TC is in its earliest stages as attorneys representing those hundreds of women with brain tumors start working to make them whole. Even if they receive adequate payouts, however, that money won't take away their suffering, or give them back the years of their life lost to tumors they should have been warned about. **More on injectables:** [*This Sleazy GLP-1 Prescription Site Is Using Deepfaked "Before-and-After" Photos of Fake Patients, and Running Ads Showing AI-Generated Ozempic Boxes*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()