Winter Maladies: Natural Approaches
June Russell's Health Facts
Caveats: DES and Thalidomide
Medicine had been dominated for decades by the myth of the placenta barrier - the belief that the placenta acted as a impenetrable shield protecting the baby from harmful outside influences. This myth endured long after evidence mounted to the contrary. Two medical scandals would shatter this myth - the thalidomide tragedy (a parent's worst nightmare, which came to light in 1962), and a decade later by the shocking discoveries about DES, a drug that doctors had been giving to women for more than 30 years. (p.49) (in the book, "Our Stolen Future," Colburn, Dumanoski, Myers, 1997) * Thalidomide had been prescribed to pregnant women for nausea and a tranquilizer, and by the time it was removed from the market, it had caused severe deformities in 8,000 children in 46 countries. (p. 50)
A new study by Dutch scientists found that the grandsons of women who took DES to stabilize pregnancy may be roughly 20 times more likely than other children to develop hypospadias, a rare birth defect in which the location of the urethra opening on the penis is askew. Although this isn't life-threatening it often requires multiple surgeries to repair and can leave significant scars on a man's sexual confidence. DES was a synthetic form of estrogen prescribed to 4 million pregnant women worldwide during the 1950s and 1960s on the shaky notion that it prevented miscarriages and pre-term delivery. The drug was banned in this country in 1971 (but available in Europe for another 7 years) after reports that it caused vaginal and cervical cancers, as well as fertility trouble, in the daughters of women who used it. Men whose mothers took DES were also at risk of urinary and genital defects, including various testicle problems. Flora van Leeuwen, a cancer epidemiologist at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, led the study. DES had a much higher concentration of hormone than birth control tablets, however, women shouldn't be using the pill while pregnant. ("Banned Hormone's Effects Last Three Generations, Grandsons of women who took DES more prone to genital defect,"
HealthScout.com/healthcentral - April 2002)