Increased Cancer Risk in Women Exposed to Synthetic Estrogen Diethylstilbestrol (DES)

According to ScienceDaily, the female offspring of mothers who used DES as their synthetic form of estrogen during pregnancy are developing an increased risk of cancer as well as multiple reproductive problems. In the early 1940’s, the purpose of DES was to prevent complications in relation to pregnancy, but over the next ten years researchers had found the drug to be ineffective. Nearly thirty years after DES was introduced, clear cell adenocarcinoma (CCA) had developed among the women who were exposed to DES during their fetal development.



Many of the male offspring that had been exposed to DES during their fetal development saw an increase in testicular abnormalities. The population of male offspring exposed to DES does not equate to the increasingly harmful risks that the population of exposed female offspring are facing. Researchers are discovering altered genes as a result of exposure to DES. The genetic alterations from DES may be inherited into future generations.

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