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Distillbene: medicine that caused the diseases to be cured

2002/11/24 Mendiburu, Joana - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa

If the French state was born before 1978, look! Between 1950 and 1977, women were ordered to take the drug Distilbene® to avoid the risk of abortion. But, in addition to being ineffective, children born under the effects of this drug are suffering its consequences. Among other things, they have great fertility problems, including many abortions.

In France it is estimated that 160,000 children were born under the influence of Distilben, half of them girls.

It is serious to find a drug on the market without any official control measures like the drug Bio Back. But it is even more serious that, after passing all the tests and taking them with the prescription, over several years, we know that it is a very harmful medicine for health. We continue to remember the Lipobay anti-cholesterol drug that Bayer withdrew from the market last year. Unfortunately there are more such cases: Despite its ban in 1977, in the French state the consequences of the drug Dislibene are occurring.

What is Distilbene®?

The drug marketed in the French state under the name Distilbene® is diethylstilbestrol or synthetic hormone DES. This molecule was synthesized by the British Charles Dodds in 1938 and marketed for the first time in 1947, being twice as effective as the natural estrogen hormone. Pregnant women were prescribed to prevent unwanted abortions, prevent the baby from being born too soon, and treat bleeding during pregnancy.

Children born under the influence of the drug are suffering its consequences. They have fertility problems.

It is easy to understand how to act and where the mistake was made. Since the beginning of pregnancy the woman increases the production of hormones. In this way, at the beginning of pregnancy, estrogen hormone levels increase unless an abortion occurs. In this case, there is not the same increase as in normal pregnancy. In view of this, the researchers concluded that estrogen injection during pregnancy would have positive consequences. But the conclusions were very soon. Reducing estrogen is due to abortion and not abortion. This serious error resulted in a drug that, in addition to being ineffective, has been harmful.

Prohibition in the 1970s and its consequences now

It took 33 years to prove that the drug was not effective. But not only that! It has also been shown to have caused severe fertility problems for children born under the influence of the drug. In fact, although in the 1970s it was totally banned, the consequences have been noted with the arrival of girls who were born under the influence of the drug at the age of being mothers.

Fertility problems are not suffered by all mothers who took the drug Distilbene®, but 20-35% of girls.

In the United States and Canada the drug was first banned in 1970. In France, it is estimated that it was between 1968 and 1971 when it was most taken and up to seven years after in the United States gynecologists continued to recite. The Ministry of Health published its first fact sheet for physicians 12 years after its ban (1989).

But by then the damage was already done to millions of women. In the United States, between 1950 and 1971, between 4 and 6 million women took part. It arrived in Europe in the 1950s and was mainly prescribed in the French state and the Netherlands. In France it is estimated that 160,000 children were born under the influence of Distilben, half of them girls.

The synthetic hormone DES, produced by more than 300 laboratories worldwide, was sold with as many other names. The only thing that changed from laboratory to laboratory was the dose. Some studies have shown that some doses were huge: DES had both estrogen and 55,000 birth control pills!

Generates problems you had to complete

In children born under the influence of synthetic hormone DES, the drug has not influenced fertility or cancer. Unfortunately, the case of girls who were born under the influence of the drug is another.

DES in women has mainly caused anatomical abnormalities and fertility problems. Due to genital anomalies, today these girls of childbearing age have great difficulties to become pregnant and especially to carry out their pregnancy. Unfortunately, the medicine designed to prevent abortions produces abortions.

In addition, these women are at risk for vaginal cancer during menopause. Therefore, throughout their lives, they advise women who were born affected by DES to come annually to the gynecologist and follow these problems closely.

All children of mothers who took the drug Distilbene® have no fertility problems, but 20-35% of girls. For this reason, the children who were born in the French state before 1978, especially the girls, are told that it is convenient for them to know if their mothers had taken this medication.

Associations created by women who suffer the consequences of Distilben (http://www.des-france.org) have denounced that most victims are not yet aware of their problem and that, in addition, many doctors do not have sufficient information on this issue. The problem has had so much impact in the French state, where the generation of women of about 30 years is known as the generation of Distilben.

Distilbene® is currently only recited to cure prostate cancer.

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