US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, 1996
Study Abstract
The main focus of the present study is to examine the impact of being a DES-daughter upon gender-identity, body-experience, body-acceptance, sexual satisfaction, and the wish for having children.
Gender-identity, body-experience, sexuality, and the wish for having children in DES-daughters, Women’s Health, NCBI PubMed PMID: 8948086, 1996.
Pink & Blue image credit Janet McKnight.
Subjects were DES-daughters (N = 206) and age-matched controls (N = 121) who were not prenatally exposed to DES.
All subjects completed a battery of measures including Bem’s Sex Role Inventory (1977), a written gynecological anamnesis, and questionnaires concerning body-experience, sexuality, and the wish for having children.
- First, it was expected that DES-daughters would be more masculinized in their self-concepts than non-exposed control subjects.
- Our second hypothesis was that DES-daughters would be lower in body-acceptance and sexual satisfaction, and would have stronger wishes and more emotionality concerning reproduction.
Contrary to expectations, DES-daughters were not more ‘masculinized’ than controls. Instead, they tended to have higher scores on femininity.
Furthermore, no differences between DES-daughters and controls appeared in body-acceptance and sexual satisfaction. However, the DES-daughters reported a stronger wish for having children and expressed more emotionality concerning the subject.
More DES DiEthylStilbestrol Resources
- Other studies on DES and gender identity.
- Diethylstilbestrol DES studies by topics.