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HWN Suggests

The Legacy of Diethylstilbestrol (DES): A Systemic Failure and the Fight for Justice

The impact of DES is not confined to those who were directly exposed; it spans multiple generations. The children and grandchildren of women who took DES continue to face the consequences, a testament to the long-lasting and generational nature of this harm. The societal structures that allowed DES to stay on the market for so long have created ripple effects that continue to affect families, compounding the devastation across generations.,, Evidence emerged as early as the 1950s that DES was harmful, warnings about its efficacy and safety were ignored by the very institutions that should have protected the public. It was not until the landmark 1971 New England Journal of Medicine study linking…

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Featured

 Are the Effects of DES Over? A Tragic Lesson from the Past

Diethylstilbestrol (DES), a transplacental endocrine-disrupting chemical, was prescribed to pregnant women for several decades. The number of women who took DES is hard to know precisely, but it has been estimated that over 10 million people have been exposed around the world. DES was classified in the year 2000 as carcinogenic to humans. The deleterious effects induced by DES are very extensive, such as abnormalities or cancers of the genital tract and breast, neurodevelopmental alterations, problems associated with socio-sexual behavior, and immune, pancreatic and cardiovascular disorders. Not only pregnant women but also their children and grandchildren have been affected.

Articles of Interest

A Victim of DES Puts Experience Into a Documentary

For 18 years DES has played a pre-eminent role in her life. Like so many ''DES daughters,'' she cannot have children. She had a hysterectomy in 1990, when she was given a diagnosis of cervical cancer. Now Ms. Helfand, a film maker, has created a documentary about her experience, ''A Healthy Baby Girl.''

Anti-miscarriage drug doubles breast cancer risk in daughters

The drug, known as DES (diethylstilbestrol), was commonly prescribed for pregnant women between the 40s and 60s if doctors thought they were at risk of miscarrying and sometimes also for morning sickness. There are no definite figures for the number of women who took it, but research suggests there may have been as many as 200,000 in the UK.

DES Daughters: Banned Pregnancy Drug Linked to Infertility, Prematurity and Cancer

In the late 1960s, a cluster of teen girls and young women showed up at Massachusetts General Hospital and were diagnosed with a rare vaginal cancer, clear cell adenocarcinoma. It’s unusual even when it’s diagnosed in elderly women, but it was completely out of context in twentysomethings.more One woman, the mother of one of the affected girls, asked whether it could be connected to the drug she took in early pregnancy. That drug was DES, or diethylstilbestrol, which was widely prescribed in the U.S. beginning in 1940 to help stave off miscarriage — until 1971, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration decided that the drug doesn’t work and that it causes cancer.

Toxic Bodies: Hormone Disruptors and the Legacy of DES

Nancy Langston examines the history of synthetic chemicals that disrupt hormones in our bodies and the ecosystem, and the struggles government agencies have faced in regulating them. She uses the powerful case study of the synthetic estrogen diethylstilbestrol (DES) as an example of what can go wrong if precautionary measures are not followed in protecting public health.

Women Exposed To Hormone In Utero Face Lifelong Health Problems

Back in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, doctors prescribed a hormone called diethylstilbestrol, or DES, to millions of pregnant women in the unfounded belief it would prevent miscarriages. Smack in the middle of this period, the deformed thalidomide babies demonstrated the terrible things that can happen when drugs are casually prescribed during pregnancy. But the effects of DES were much more insidious. It wasn't until 1970 that doctors in Boston, where DES use was especially popular, discovered a rare vaginal cancer in young women who had been exposed to the hormone in utero.

Resources

DES Action

The mission of DES Action USA is to identify, educate, empower and advocate for DES-exposed individuals.