New Online Global DES Health History Survey

Calling all DES Mothers, Daughters and Sons!

DES diethylstilbestrol health history 2012 survey image — The DES Health History Global Survey is our chance to be heard and make all of our health experience counts!

Take part in the new DES Health History survey created by DES Action USA and open to all DES-exposed individuals worldwide.

The survey is designed to establish trends and identify health issues faced by women who took Diethylstilbestrol, their DES exposed children, and also their children (DES granddaughters and grandsons).

Data from the DES community on health conditions – beyond those already known – which appear more frequently in DES-exposed individuals than among unexposed populations is critically missing. This information is needed to share with researchers who can follow-up with further study.

My mum has recently been diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid. Could it be associated with her exposure to Diethylstilbestrol back in the late 60’s? Is she the only woman who was prescribed the wonder drug DES during pregnancy to suffer from this health condition?

I suffer from anxiety and stress from worrying about what the future holds for my daughters and whether Diethylstilbestrol will affect their health and chances to give me and my husband grand children. Am I the only DES daughter out there who cries in secret when her little girl plays being a mum knowing that this synthetic hormone may one day prevent that imaginative play from becoming reality due to potential DES pregnancy complications?

The children of Marie-Odile Gobillard-Soyer, a French DES mother and researcher in molecular biology, both committed suicide. She started an association and in 2011 conducted a national study among children of French DES mothers which revealed a link between DES and mental illness issues in DES daughters and sons. Could this be a worldwide trend?

In October 2011, the alarming results of a study analyzing the risks of diethylstilbestrol related disorders among women whose mothers took the synthetic hormone during pregnancy, compared to others who weren’t exposed were published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. But victims of this drug scandal wonder if other health conditions that are currently not associated with DES by the medical profession could in fact be the direct result of Diethylstilbestrol exposure. Hopefully the new global DES Health History Survey will answer these questions.

Since I started my Journal of a DES Daughter, I’ve read many sad testimonials and DES stories. What they all share in common is the incertitude for the future and the feeling that the DES drug scandal and its associated health issues are not enough acknowledged publicly and by the medical profession. The DES Health History Survey will provide DES Actions groups and DES activists with the data needed to push for more studies and support for DES victims.

Why is it important to know whether your health condition is associated with DES or not? First because DES victims have the right to KNOW and more importantly because PREVENTION of these conditions when you know you are at higher risk can save lives.

The deadline for the completion and return of this survey is JUNE 15th 2012.

The survey can be completed online or you can download the “DES Health History Questionnaire“.

Please share this information on your social networks, with your friend and family who may be interested in completing the survey. I can’t stress enough the importance to take part! This is our chance to be heard and make all of our health experience counts!

06/10/201106/03/2019

New Study Suggests Lifetime Risk of Adverse Health Outcomes for DES Daughters

A study published on October 06th, 2011 in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine tallies the risks of diethylstilbestrol related disorders among women whose mothers took the synthetic hormone during pregnancy, compared to others who weren’t exposed.

Breat Cancer Awareness pink ribbon image — New study suggests that women exposed to DES are 82% more likely to develop breast cancer after age 40

Among these health risks, the study suggests that women exposed to diethylstilbestrol, commonly called DES daughters, are 82% more likely to develop breast cancer after age 40.

Overwhelmed by the extensive media coverage that the publication of this study sparked in the USA, Canada, Australia and France but upset by the total absence of information in the UK, I contacted a health journalist at the UK Press Association to request for this information to be made available to the general public and widely shared and circulated in the UK press.

Given that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and 2011 marks the 40th Anniversary of the DES cancer link, I am hoping that my emails to the Press Association won’t go unnoticed and will grab the attention of UK journalists.

Findings of the DES Study

As part of this new study, researchers at the National Cancer Institute analyzed data from three separate studies that have followed more than 4,000 DES-exposed women since the 1970s. Compared with a control group of unexposed women, DES daughters were found to have higher rates of infertility (33% versus 16%), miscarriage (50% versus 39%), preterm delivery (53% versus 18%), and ectopic pregnancy (15% versus 3%). The DES-exposed women were also 82% more likely to develop breast cancer after age 40, and more than twice as likely to experience menopause before age 45. For most of the health conditions included in the study, the increase in risk was even greater for DES daughters who had been exposed to especially high doses of the drug.

“Our study carefully documents elevated risk for DES-exposed daughters for a host of medical problems — many of them also quite common in the general population,” said study author Robert N. Hoover, M.D., director of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program in NCI’s Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics. “Without the sentinel finding of a very rare cancer in young women, and without the sustained follow-up of those who were exposed, we would not know the full extent of harm caused by DES exposure in the womb.”

Many of the potential health complications identified in the new study have been raised in previous research, in some cases with conflicting results. A 2010 study of DES daughters conducted in the Netherlands, for instance, found no link between exposure and breast-cancer risk. However a 2006 study had already suggested a higher risk of breast cancer in DES daughters. This year (2011), fifty-three DES daughters who developed breast cancer have brought a lawsuit against several DES manufacturers; the lawsuit is currently under way in Boston, USA.

What the study doesn’t mention is the health risks for DES sons. Despite the fact that women who have been prescribed diethylstilbestrol during pregnancy gave birth to as many sons as daughters, DES sons have once again been left out from a research study. Why researchers fail to include all those who have been affected, men and women? To me, we will never truly understand the extent of the DES tragedy if we don’t take a comprehensive and global approach to the problem. So even though, I welcome this study the need for more research remains obvious.

Situation in the UK

According to the support group DES Action UK who unfortunately is no longer active, more than 300,000 people in the UK (5 to 10 millions worldwide) have been exposed to diethylstilboestrol. So why countries like the UK fail to inform the general public about such an important study?

DES was prescribed to pregnant women in the UK between around 1950 and 1975, mainly to prevent miscarriage. This was despite the fact that research published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1953 revealed that women receiving DES suffered a higher rate of miscarriage. The synthetic estrogen was developed in England in 1938. It wasn’t patented and went on to be produced by more than 200 companies. In the UK, DES was known as Stilboestrol® and was sold under many brand names.

Yet, the DES tragedy remains largely unknown in the UK. Some British doctors have never heard of DES and there is only one dedicated clinic in Europe, based in Ireland. Many women are unaware that their infertility or cancer is a result of their mother having taken the drug. All of these women are not receiving proper medical treatment, or making truly informed decisions about their healthcare, as a result.

As a DES daughter myself I have reason to be interested in this new report in the New England Journal of Medicine that takes a thorough look at the heightened medical risks associated with prenatal DES exposure. And I am sure I am not the only one in the UK who feels the same. Despite overwhelming evidence of numerous health risks associated with DES exposure nobody seems to care in the UK. Media interest in the DES issues would definitely help to reach out to all those affected but unaware that their health problems may be related to Stilboestrol®.

The lack of UK media coverage on this new important study just shows how thick the wall of silence around the DES issues in the UK is. To share my experience and knowledge of this drug, I started this personal blog earlier this year for DES mothers, daughters and sons, and others interested in the DES issue. But this is a drop in the ocean. I need support from the media to reach out to people who may have been exposed. I sincerely hope the UK will show an interest in this study and will take on this opportunity to break the wall of silence.

01/05/201113/08/2017

DES (Diethylstilbestrol) Symposium

It is now 40 years since the connection between DES exposure and Cancer in DES daughters was discovered. On May 19th 2011, the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, Massachusetts, USA where this connection was first made, will be hosting a DES (Diethylstibestrol) symposium. DES daughters will share their experiences and discuss with DES specialists the lessons learned about embryogenesis, fertility, and carcinogenesis from in utero exposures. The DES symposium is free and open to the general public. Please show your support to this event by attending or spreading the word.

The timing and location of the DES (Diethylstilbestrol) symposium have historical significance. In the late 1960s, there was an unprecedented appearance of a rare vaginal cancer in young women. Cases of Clear Cell Adenocarcinoma (CCA) were diagnosed in an age group never before found to develop it. A DES mother raised the question of whether her daughter’s vaginal cancer might be connected to DES exposure in utero. Doctors confirmed the link between DES and cancer in 1971 and published their findings in the April 1971 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. It is at the MGH that the DES cancer link was first made on April 22, 1971.

In 2011, in the USA and in many other corners of the world, diethylstibestrol continues to affect the lives of not only the DES mothers who were prescribed the carcinogenic drug, the lives of their daughters and sons who have been exposed in utero, but also the lives of their grandchildren. And unfortunately, cancer is not the only health issue that has been linked to DES since 1971. The DES health concerns are still as relevant today as they were in the late 1960’s. Research is still needed, and more needs to be done to ensure the DES victims are not forgotten. The DES (Diethylstilbestrol) symposium is an important event which will contribute to raise awareness of the devastating long-term side effects of synthetic hormones such as diethylstilbestrol.

DES (Diethylstilbestrol) Symposium

WHEN
Thursday 19th May 2011

WHERE
Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts – Masa Ether Dome, Bulfinch Building

TIME
from 3:00 pm to 5:30 pm
Reception from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm in the Ether Dome, Bulfinch 4.

PROGRAMME

Part I (3 – 4 pm) of the May 19, 2011 symposium will feature a DES Daughters’ Panel, moderated by Annekathryn Goodman, MD. The DES Daughters’ Panel will include:

Andrea Goldstein, RN – DES daughter and DES activist since 1978; recognized throughout the DES community as the historian for the DES issue.
Caitlin McCarthy – DES Daughter and screenwriter of WONDER DRUG (www.wonderdrugthemovie.com), an award-winning screenplay about the DES drug disaster (currently seeking financing).
Cheryl Roth – DES daughter who does not want the DES tragedy forgotten. She is interested in ensuring that future generations who may be affected by the ingestion of the drug by grandmothers, great-grandmothers, etc. have knowledgeable physicians to treat them.

Part II (4 – 5:30 pm) will be the Scientific Session, moderated by John Schorge, MD. Speakers and topics will include:

Michael Greene, MD (Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine) – History of the use of DES in pregnancy.
Robert Young, MD (Department of Pathology) – Pathologic changes in the female reproductive tract after in utero DES exposure
Thomas Toth, MD (Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility) – The structural changes in the uterus and cervix and implications for fertility after in utero DES exposure.
Marcela Del Carmen, MD (Division of Gynecologic Oncology) – Clear Cell Carcinoma of the vagina in DES exposed women.
Annekathryn Goodman, MD (Division of Gynecologic Oncology) – Endocrine disruptors and the potential molecular basis of carcinogenesis DES exposure.

DES events such as the DES symposium are a great acknowledgement that Di-ethyl stilbestrol is not something of the past. The DES tragedy is far from over so please help support this event by attending or spreading the word. The Diethylstibestrol DES symposium is free and open to the general public.

This event is sponsored by Vincent Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Sources: DES Info.