The most general model of elliptical birefringence in an optical fiber has been developed for a steady-state and transient stimulated Brillouin scattering interaction. The impact of the elliptical birefringence is to induce a Brillouin frequency shift and distort the Brillouin spectrum—which varies with different light polarizations and pulsewidths. The model investigates the effects of birefringence and the corresponding evolution of spectral distortion effects along the fiber, providing a valuable prediction tool for distributed sensing applications.