Florida Depo-Provera
Lawsuit

If you received Depo-Provera birth control injections and were later diagnosed with a meningioma, a tumor that grows on the membranes around the brain and spinal cord, you may have grounds to file a product liability claim. Lawsuits across the country allege that Pfizer and the makers of generic medroxyprogesterone acetate failed to warn women and their doctors about the meningioma risk tied to long-term use.

As of May 2026, more than 3,700 of those claims have been gathered into a single federal proceeding, multidistrict litigation (MDL) No. 3140, before Judge M. Casey Rodgers in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. The litigation is in Florida, and so is your filing deadline.

That deadline is the part most online guides get wrong. Florida shortened the statute of limitations for most negligence and product liability claims to two years for causes of action accruing on or after March 24, 2023, under the law commonly called HB 837. Whether your two-year clock has started, and when, depends on when you knew or reasonably should have known that your tumor was connected to the drug. That is a fact-specific question, and getting it wrong can end a claim before it begins. This article explains what the science says, where the litigation stands, who may have a claim, and what to do now.

Is Depo-Provera Linked to Brain Tumors?

The concern centers on medroxyprogesterone acetate, the synthetic progestin in Depo-Provera. The drug has been marketed since 1992 as a long-acting contraceptive given by injection roughly every three months, and tens of millions of women have used it. The question now in front of courts and regulators is whether prolonged use raises the risk of intracranial meningioma, and whether the manufacturers should have said so sooner.

What the Research Actually Found

The study that moved this issue forward was published in The BMJ in March 2024 by Noemie Roland and colleagues at the French research group EPI-PHARE. Using national health data, the researchers found that women who used medroxyprogesterone acetate for more than a year had a meaningfully higher rate of meningioma requiring surgery, on the order of a five-fold increase compared with women who did not use it.

Two points keep this honest. First, meningioma is uncommon to begin with, so a five-fold increase still leaves the absolute risk for any individual woman relatively low. Second, the researchers themselves noted that the number of exposed cases in their data was small, and they called for further study. A separate analysis of U.S. insurance data published later in 2024 reported a similar association that grew stronger with longer use. The science is developing rather than settled, which is exactly why the federal court has scheduled hearings to test it.

Meningioma: Symptoms and Diagnosis

A meningioma forms on the meninges, the protective layers around the brain and spinal cord. Many are slow-growing and noncancerous, but as one expands it can press on nearby brain tissue and produce symptoms that are easy to mistake for other conditions:

• Vision changes such as blurring or double vision, from pressure on the optic nerves
• Seizures
• Persistent headaches that worsen over time
• Problems with memory, speech, or concentration
• Weakness or loss of coordination on one side of the body
• Hearing loss or ringing in the ears

Diagnosis is usually confirmed with an MRI or CT scan, and treatment can involve surgery, radiation, or long-term monitoring. If you used Depo-Provera and have been diagnosed with a meningioma, the imaging reports and pathology records that confirmed it will be central to any claim.

The Legal Basis: Failure to Warn

A product liability claim here does not rest on the idea that Depo-Provera should never have existed. It rests on a narrower and older principle: a drug manufacturer that knows, or should know, of a serious risk has a duty to warn patients and physicians about it. When a company learns of a danger and does not update its labeling, an injured patient may have a failure-to-warn claim.

That duty connects to informed consent. A patient deciding whether to start an injectable contraceptive is entitled to weigh its risks. If the meningioma risk was knowable and was not disclosed, plaintiffs argue, women were never given the full picture they needed to make that choice. The Depo-Provera lawsuits are built on the gap between what was known and what appeared on the label.

Regulators are part of this story. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration added a meningioma warning to the Depo-Provera label in December 2025, after European labeling had already been updated. Pfizer has argued in the MDL that federal law shielded it from adding a warning earlier, a defense known as preemption. How the court rules on that question will shape every case in the litigation.

Where the Litigation Stands

The Depo-Provera cases are not a class action in which everyone shares one outcome. They are individual lawsuits coordinated for efficiency in MDL No. 3140 in the Northern District of Florida. Each plaintiff keeps her own claim, her own facts, and her own damages. A few markers of where things stand as of May 2026:

• More than 3,700 cases are pending before Judge Rodgers, up from fewer than 100 a year earlier.
• General causation hearings are scheduled for late June 2026, where both sides will argue whether the scientific evidence is strong enough to let the cases proceed.
• The first pilot trials are set to begin in December 2026.
• The MDL is still accepting new cases.

No settlement has been reached, and no jury has yet decided whether Depo-Provera causes meningioma. Any source promising a specific payout or an average settlement figure is guessing. A responsible assessment of your situation looks at your records and the actual state of the litigation, not at numbers that do not yet exist.

Do You Have a Depo-Provera Claim?

Not every woman who used the drug will have a case. Claims generally share a few features:

• Use of the product. You received Depo-Provera or Depo-SubQ Provera injections, or a generic medroxyprogesterone acetate equivalent. Generic use can still support a claim.
• Extended use. The research links risk to prolonged use, commonly described as a year or more.
• A meningioma diagnosis. You have a confirmed intracranial meningioma, documented by imaging and your treating physicians.

Whether those features add up to a viable claim, and whether your filing window is open, is the kind of determination a lawyer makes after reviewing your dates and records. It is not something to decide from a web page.

Records Worth Gathering Now

If you are considering a claim, start assembling the documents that establish the timeline:

• Pharmacy and clinic records showing the dates of your injections
• MRI or CT reports and pathology confirming the meningioma
• Records of treatment, including any surgery, radiation, or follow-up care
• Documentation of income lost to your diagnosis and recovery

Preserving these early matters more under Florida’s two-year framework than it did under the prior four-year rule.

What a Claim Can Seek

Florida law allows an injured plaintiff to seek compensation for the harm an inadequately labeled product caused. In a meningioma case that may include:

• Medical expenses, past and future, for surgery, imaging, rehabilitation, and monitoring. Note an important Florida change: under Fla. Stat. § 768.0427, juries now see the amounts actually paid for care, not the higher billed figures, so realistic medical-damage estimates rest on what was paid or will be paid.
• Lost income and lost earning capacity, if your diagnosis kept you from working or limited what you can earn going forward.
• Pain, suffering, and the loss of life’s enjoyment, the non-economic harm that follows a serious brain injury and its treatment.

One more Florida rule deserves a plain statement. Under the modified comparative negligence standard in Fla. Stat. § 768.81, a plaintiff found more than 50 percent at fault recovers nothing. In a drug case that is less central than in a car crash, but it is one reason defense lawyers probe a plaintiff’s own conduct, and one reason careful documentation matters.

The Deadline, Stated Plainly

Florida now allows two years to file most negligence and product liability claims that accrued on or after March 24, 2023. For a drug injury that surfaces years after the exposure, the practical question is when that clock starts. Florida’s discovery rule can delay the start of the period until a patient knew, or reasonably should have known, both of the injury and its likely cause. For many Depo-Provera plaintiffs that points toward the 2024 study or the December 2025 label change, but the analysis is individual and fact-driven.

Two years is not long for a case that requires medical records from several providers, expert review, and coordination with a federal proceeding in the Northern District of Florida. The takeaway is not that time is short as a slogan. It is that the date your claim accrued is a specific legal question with a hard consequence, and it should be answered by a lawyer who has reviewed your records, not assumed from a calendar.

How These Cases Are Built

A pharmaceutical claim turns on evidence and expert testimony. A plaintiff’s lawyer builds the chronological link between the injections and the diagnosis from the medical record, then relies on neurologists, oncologists, and epidemiologists to explain the connection to a court. Because the claims sit inside a federal MDL, individual cases also move in step with the court’s rulings on shared questions such as causation and preemption.

This is why the choice of counsel matters. A meningioma claim against Pfizer and generic manufacturers is complex product liability, governed by FDA labeling history, clinical data, and Florida’s post-HB 837 rules. It calls for a firm that handles plaintiff-side civil litigation and understands how a Florida claim interacts with a national MDL, not a generic intake operation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I file if I used a generic version?

Possibly. Generic medroxyprogesterone acetate makers are named alongside Pfizer in the litigation, so generic use does not automatically rule out a claim. The legal analysis can differ for generics, which is worth raising with a lawyer.

I used Depo-Provera years ago. Is it too late?

Not necessarily. Florida’s discovery rule can delay the start of the filing period until you knew, or should have known, that your tumor was linked to the drug. Whether that helps in your case depends on your specific dates, so do not assume the window has closed without checking.

What does it cost to have my case reviewed?

Plaintiff-side personal injury and product liability cases are typically handled on a contingency fee, meaning the fee is a percentage of any recovery rather than an hourly bill. The specific terms should be explained to you in writing before you sign anything.

About the Author — Attorney John Bales

John Bales is the principal of John Bales Attorneys, a plaintiff-side civil litigation firm with offices in Tampa, Sun City Center, and Melbourne Beach, Florida. Admitted to The Florida Bar in 1982, he is Board Certified in Business Litigation Law by The Florida Bar — the highest level of recognition The Florida Bar offers. He has been continuously selected to Florida Super Lawyers and holds an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell. He has served as President of the Hillsborough County Bar Association and Chair of the Grievance Committee for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit.

This article is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. For advice on your specific situation, consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction.