Hypospadias risk when grandma used diethylstilbestrol - DES
12 April 2002
A drug used in the 1970s to prevent miscarriages may put women's grandsons at increased risk of genital disorders.
According to researchers from the Netherlands, boys whose maternal grandmothers used the synthetic oestrogen diethylstilbestrol (DES) 30 years ago, have a higher risk of developing hypospadias than boys whose maternal grandmother did not. The research was reported in a recent issue of the Lancet (2002; 359: 1102-07).
An accompanying editorial noted that this is the first time such a trans-generational effect has been suggested in humans.
Although DES is still used in Australia to treat prostate cancer, doctors stopped prescribing it to pregnant women in the early 1970s, after concerns it was associated with vaginal adenocarcinoma in their daughters who were exposed in the womb.
Last Reviewed: 19 April 2002
- Medical Observer Weekly 12/04/02
