Face the facts : Diethylstilbestrol.

This is the story of a 'disastrous' drug, a synthetic hormone, prescribed to thousands of mothers in Britain. Diethylstilbestrol, supposed to prevent miscarriage, in fact damaged the babies it was intended to protect. In the USA, in the 1940s, DES was recommended as a routine prophylaxis, in all pregnancies, advertised as giving bigger and stronger babies. But a 1950s double blind study, in Chicago, contradicted this. In 1971 it was found to cause a rare cancer in the offspring and was withdrawn in the US, but not for 7 more years in UK. The UK has no register of DES users, so no clear idea of the effects it might have had.