Word: diethylstilbestrol
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Caution may be in order. No one wants a repeat of the problems that happened with diethylstilbestrol (DES), a synthetic estrogen-like drug that was used in the 1950s and '60s to prevent premature delivery and turned out to cause, among other things, reproductive-tract abnormalities and a rare cancer. Unlike DES, however, progesterone has a long safety record. And it is not being used in the earliest days of pregnancy, when birth defects are more likely to occur. What progesterone doesn't have is a major manufacturer, because the drug is not protected by a patent. Instead...
...fertility problems -- and by extension a possible danger to humans. She began collecting human epidemiological studies, which suggested to her that human fetal exposure to such chemicals as PCBs could produce disorders affecting behavior, immune-system functioning, memory and learning. She also surveyed the literature on humans exposed to diethylstilbestrol, or DES, a synthetic drug that is related to estrogen. DES can be used to prevent miscarriage, treat prostate and breast cancer or reduce the symptoms of menopause; it can even promote growth in sheep and cows. But in 1971, after studies linked its use by pregnant women with reproductive...
...more sex partners came a sharp rise in sexually transmitted diseases and other infections that can impair fertility. In addition, tens of thousands of women now in their 30s and 40s were born with malformed reproductive systems as a result of their mothers' use of the drug DES (diethylstilbestrol), which was widely prescribed in the 1940s and '50s to prevent miscarriage...
Europeans became fearful of hormone supplements in the early 1980s after the synthetic hormone diethylstilbestrol, or DES, was detected several times in baby food made with veal. (The growth-inducing compound, which has been linked to cancer and birth defects, was banned in the U.S. in 1979.) Amid the furor, four countries prohibited all hormone use in cattle. The E.C. adopted the restriction in 1985, and this month banned the importation of hormone- treated meat...
...mother took the synthetic hormone diethylstilbestrol during her pregnancy. As a DES daughter, I hope that FDA Commissioner Arthur Hayes will not approve the use of Depo-Provera until long-term studies of its safety have" been made. We should not give rise, as we did with DES, to another generation of "clinical studies," but should prudently await definitive studies on Depo-Provera's safety...