DES Mothers

DES, short for diethylstilbestrol (or stilbestrol), known as the “grandmother of synthetic estrogens,” was the first in a long line of synthetic estrogens. First synthesized in 1938 to prevent menstrual disorders, it quickly became prescribed widely to prevent miscarriages and enhance pregnancies. However, what was supposed to be a miracle drug became a medical nightmare, as it was the first known drug to cross the placenta during pregnancy. Women who took diethylstilbestrol during pregnancy became known as DES mothers; their exposed offspring are known as DES daughters and DES sons.

DES was never patented because funds for its discovery, received from the British government, required that all discoveries it funded be freely available to the world for production; this made it widely available. Although it was undertested and its efficacy and safety subject to debate, it was produced by more than 300 pharmaceutical companies under many brand names, and was prescribed to millions of pregnant women around the world for over 30 years.

Unfortunately, as some researchers had argued as early as the late 1930s, DES was not effective in preventing miscarriage or enhancing pregnancy. Although it was finally contraindicated for pregnancy in 1971, it continued to be used well into the 1980s. When DES was no longer saleable in privileged parts of the world, it was “dumped” into some third world countries for over-the-counter use during pregnancy. Ironically, while DES was an old reproductive technology erroneously used to support pregnancy, it was also used to decrease breast-milk production after pregnancy, and later reappeared as a postcoital pregnancy preventative in the Morning-After pill.