DES Daughters?

Corvidae · 11-18-2006, 10:20 AM

Are there any DES daughters out there?

When my Mother was pregnant with me her doctor gave her diethylstilbesterol because it was believed to prevent miscarriage. It was used from 1938 to 1971 so many of the affected women would be past child bearing age now... except for those of us born in the last few years the drug was used.

The drug was an artificial estrogen and it's also an endocrin disruptor and may be the cause of some other symptoms I have associated with PCOS... like elevated prolactin.

More info can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/DES/consumers/daughters/index.html. It's been found that DES granddaughters also show some effects so it's likely that the drug caused epigenetic changes as well.

It would be interesting to hear if there are any others out there who may be aware of their mothers or grandmothers having been given DES during pregnancy.

KatCarney · 11-18-2006, 10:40 AM

I'm a DES Daughter.

FYI

http://www.soulcysters.net/bcps-not-...ok-des-127748/

catsnack · 11-18-2006, 07:29 PM

I was just reaseraching this the other day. I believe my mother is a DES daughter, so I'm the "third generation". In the looking around I did about the 3rd gen, I found notes on physical differences, but nothing referencing anything like PCOS.

dblj_5 · 11-19-2006, 02:38 AM

I'm a DES Grand-Daughter. My mom was a DES baby.

Corvidae · 11-19-2006, 06:58 AM

There isn't very much evidence of any potential crossover between POCS and DES exposure until you start to pick apart how the endocrine system works.

I have elevated prolactin levels and DES exposure can result in elevated prolactin levels and elevated prolactin levels increase insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is also a feature of PCOS.

In my family there have been several diabetics and two suspect cases of PCOS and I've been exposed to DES with that. I was certain that I had PCOS but when my GP started looking at my hormone levels they were simply wrong... not exactly what you'd get with any specific endocrin disorder. She refused to treat me for PCOS and referred me to an endocrinologist.

The endocrinologist did treat me for PCOS but also arranged an MRI to look for a prolactinoma- a type of pituitary tumour. She was convinced that it was the cause of all my problems. I had to wait almost six months for an MRI under the NHS in England and after all that they didn't find a tumour. The treatment for PCOS is helping with everything except the prolactin.

That's when I started to do my own research and found that not only can DES cause elevated prolactin levels it is being used to induce prolactinomas in labratory animals. Something that the CDC fail to mention in their reports on DES.

So far I've only found one study of infertility related to DES exposure that mentions finding elevated prolactin within the study group. I simply don't think the correlation has been established between DES and changes to endocrine function. And I believe that PCOS, being an endocrine disorder, can be complicated by DES exposure.

Have any of you been told you have an elevated prolactin level and is so what has been done to resolve it?

DivineMadness · 11-19-2006, 10:22 AM

ya know what my prolactin levels were high in all the tests they did..but i dunno about this des.. i wasnt born till 84...im gonna haveta find out