DES sons...(Diethylstilbestrol Hormone) were you exposed?

[Reagan]

I'm a son of DES... My mother was given it because I was a R factor baby. I was born a few weeks premature and I was in the hospital for several weeks after birth because of anemia. I almost died several times during that time and had multiple blood transfusions. I'm not sure about IS though. I do often wonder though. I never really developed my secondary sex characteristics and as far as T goes. It was impossible for my brain to process it. It made me so crazy most of the time. My parents would often get concerned about my behavior when I was growing up and throughout my young adult life. How I would just kinda short circuit and go all banana's.  Get all upset over nothing.
I have had wonderful results from Estrogen and Progesterone I can't complain no real big issues as of yet. It would be interesting to find out, but I wound't be surprised to find out that I am. I have defiantly been a lot more calm and friendlier to be around. I should have started HRT years ago.

[Rena-san]

I think I'm fourth generation. My great grandmother likely was given DES. My grandmother, from what I know, pry suffered from a lot due to DES. My dad, as a third generation son, clearly is suffering from gender issues that may or may not be related to DES. I would be fourth generation. Of course, this is all hypothetical on my part. I have no clear evidence that this is the case, nor do I care to do the research into it.

I am who I am.

[Cindy]

Oh WoW,

No factual evidence, My Mum had a series of miscarriages before she had me. I was born in 1953 and she had been under medical treatment to enable pregnancy. I identified mentally as female from the day I identified as anything. I was the middle of three children, the other two were also female.

I haven't said this before but when I went on HRT I was taken off after 2 months as I produced more E2 than I was being given.  I won't go any further as it is private. But I was asked by my Endo if my Mum had been on hormonal treatment during her pregnancy with me me and I told her that I had no idea. We had little womb conversation that I recall (sorry).


I have no clue to how to access those previous medical records, even if they exist.


An old thread but a goodie.

Cindy

[gorgonzola]

Hi! I am a DES son. My mom told me that she took it a few years ago. I didn't know that much about it at the time and we didn't discuss it at all. I think I told her thanks for telling me that and that was it. She had told me in other conversations that she had a rh factor which I still don't know much about but I think DES was prescribed for that situation. I think at that time and to some extent today doctors are just shooting in the dark at certain problems.
That's about all I'm going to say since some of my co-workers hack into my stuff on the network for their boyish entertainment.
Suffice it to say I am typical of other DES sons except I didn't have that many problems (yet).
I like to think most of what I am is what I want me to be and I am happy with it.
Jenny (gorgonzola)

[Jessica Merriman]

Opaque thank you for finding this. I just checked my records and I am a DES son with R factor!! It was hard to find because I was adopted at birth in 1965! I also found an article: The Presence of Gender Dysphori at TransAdvocate.org  I matched almost every single symptom. I am very excited with this discovery, thank you again. Take care baby! 

[justpat]

  Well I might as well join the club I am also a DES son born Mar 1950. I find it a blessing that I was even born and have now recognized who I really am and feel an inner peace that I have never known for 63 years.Wish me a safe journey I see the endo Nov 5 2013.   Pat

[Jessica Merriman]

It's never too late Pat. Go for it! I started at 47. Feels good to be free, doesn't it? 

[justpat]

  Jessica,  YES YES YES !:)

[Jill F]

I think so.  I was born in 1969.  My brother and I both had testicular abnormalities, and I had to have vestgial "girl parts" removed when I was 12.  I always believed him to be bisexual as well.  So far he seems content with being a cisguy.  I haven't bugged my mother about this because it would probably crush her and it's basically irrelevant at this point.

HRT hit me like gangbusters too.  People say pics taken last year "must be someone else".  My lost hair came back quickly and I got passable cleavage in 8 weeks as well as a bit of a bubble butt, where it was flat as a pancake before.  I went full time after only 6 or so weeks of a low dose HRT.  I don't get many doubletakes anymore, but I suppose being 6'2" and built like a linebacker does make some people wonder.

[Northern Jane]

I think the problem with DES is that the poll that established the link between DES and transsexualism was a "self-reporting" poll so it is not viewed with the same weight as a clinical study.

Having said that, I was born in 1949 to an unwed mother under the care of a teaching hospital and it is very likely she was given DES - she was given a number of medications and could not remember specific drug names. I was born with a number of medical problems including heart, respiration, and abnormal genitalia and spent the first 6 months of my life in hospital before being assigned 'male' and being adopted. I identified as female from earliest childhood and grew up thinking I was transsexual. At puberty, I had some male development and some female. At 17 I had my hormone levels tested and they were abnormal (high estrogen, low testosterone). I had SRS and transitioned fully at age 24 and trundled merrily through life. I was almost 60 before doctors told me I had a uterus.

Was it a result of DES or was it just "a roll of the dice"? I don't know and never will.

[Eva Marie]

The more I find out about DES the more I believe that I was exposed to it. Unfortunately the medical records from back then are long gone so there is no way to know for sure.

I was born in the early 60's. My mother had a very hard time carrying me to term and she had a hysterectomy soon after I was born. For that reason alone she would have been a prime candidate for DES. She doesn't remember taking any medications during her pregnancy but she did take pre-natal vitamins, and I know that DES was often mixed into those so I believe that's how I was exposed.

I had a difficult childhood and got bullied and verbally abused all throughout school. I was shy and withdrawn, couldn't fight, and had no interest in sports. I was physically a very small boy and I looked quite femme, with a small face, a narrow chin and long eyelashes. I remained a small 120lb male until I was about 27 years old and then I finally gained some weight. In my very early years I had a lot of friends that were girls, until we got old enough that the "ick" factor popped up and they stopped being my friends.

Life went on. I got married and my wife and I tried to start a family. We had no success with that so we went to a fertility specialist, and after the first unsuccessful attempt he sent me to see a doctor who diagnosed an issue with my testicles that is often associated with DES exposure. I was pretty much shooting blanks.

At 45 I began to suspect that I was transgender.

At 51 I accepted the fact that I'm a transsexual.

So, yeah.

[Sarah Louise]

Was I exposed, Yes.

I was born in 1944, it was common to be used then, there were other complications also.  My one year older sibling (who died) was a hermaphrodite (birth certificate female, death certificate male).

[JLT1]

My father and Mother had tried to conceive for several years when she became pregnant with me.  I was born March 29 1962.  I have some hospital documentation from that time that I found after my Grandmother died.  Not much helpful other than to confirm the birth.  On May 29, a new or altered birth certificate was issued and I was discharged from the hospital.  My father was on active duty Air Force and was gone but my mother went to my grandparents house, placed me and baby stuff on their table and left.  I have never met her. 

I have a severe metabolic disorder where I have slow phase 2 metabolism for almost everything and significantly reduced metabolism of aromatics via phase I or phase 2.  I am intersexed and I will not say what type right now until the medical folks quit argueing.  They even argue about MRI results.

I am still working with medical doctors.  I am still bothered about my birth - my first act in life at least contributed to my mother checking herself into an asylum.  I am still troubled with the metabolic problems.  I am what I am.  I am transitioning. 

[Satinjoy]

Timeless post topic.

I'm DES, and I'm stage 4 TS.  Whatever the science is, and there is a lot out there now, I follow the models reported on wikipedia.

It makes complete sense to me.

[anjaq]

What is a stage 4 TS?
Anyways - I think I did not get exposed to DES but my mother took "Gravibinan" - injections of estradiol and progesterone during pregnancy. Same goal - to make sure the pregnancy continues as she had low estradiol values herself. I doubt that it did much to me but who knows. I also wonder if possibly the docs used something else that she forgot...

[Satinjoy]

Natural estogens do not act the same way DES does, DES is a chemical.

Stage 4 Ts is Benjamine Stage 4.  It means my dysphoria allows me to live somewhat in both worlds, both roles.  It is not as straightforward as being a "true transexual".  There are large portions of me that remain male, mostly psychologically, and there is an overwhelming need for my female body.  So I operate "stealth" - living in a way that looks normal to most on the outside, but get me into a safe, private place and you'll find a fully transitioned trans-woman.  Like right now.

They have trouble classifying me. My hormone letter says I have "many autogynephic tendencies" and am "not a true transexual" and if I cherry pick that diagnosis I fit some of it rather well.  But since the auto theory is flawed and biased, it falls apart.  My therapist said it was a way to get me the hormones I so desperately needed.  Whatever.  I know who I am and why now.

So its not a transition stage its a standards of care stage.

I believe DES transitioned me in the womb first trimester, causing me to have estrogen receptors where most males do not, including and especially in the brain, that it reprogrammed my entire central nervous system to female and that it made me physically and structurally female until the darned testosterone finally became active at a very late puberty.  If only they knew what we know now, I would have been gorgeous.

Social conditioning abusively forced me to male, and there are many other things like I race cars and stuff.  But reality is that I am surely not male, and I'm not female either.  I am pre op transwoman.

Stage 4 unfortunately means no legal SRS by Benjamin Standards.  I am ok with that I am beautiful regardless.

Benjamin is what is used to determine hormone and SRS eligibility by the gatekeepers.  My gatekeeper fortunately recognized that it was clearly necessary for me to be on hormones - maybe because I have been starving for them ever since DES transitioned me in the womb.

Its all controversial here but I'll bet anyone its true.

[LordKAT]

I don't know where you live but very few of us were ever told we are stage anything. SRS is possible without any such thing, legally.

[Cindy]

Benjamin scale is meaningless and no longer used for anything.

[Satinjoy]

Hmmmmm.

I need to really get that understanding.  I probably am rationalizing too much again.

I keep searching for the "whys" as opposed to the "now what do I dos"

I think they were justifying the hormones, which have been a blessing to me.  And they said I don't fit Benjamin very well anyway.

A means to an end I guess.

Thanks for posting that.

[HughE]

What is a stage 4 TS?
Anyways - I think I did not get exposed to DES but my mother took "Gravibinan" - injections of estradiol and progesterone during pregnancy. Same goal - to make sure the pregnancy continues as she had low estradiol values herself. I doubt that it did much to me but who knows. I also wonder if possibly the docs used something else that she forgot...

Gravibinan is an injectible drug containing a mixture of hydroxyprogesterone caproate (a progestin), and estradiol valerate. The fact that you've ended up trans supports a theory I have: that progestins are equally as capable of causing MTF transsexuality as DES was.

I think DES caused high rates of transness among DES sons by blocking their testosterone production during the second and third trimester of fetal development, which is when the brain development responsible for gender identity later in life seems to take place. If this theory is right then progestins (which also block testosterone production) should be capable of producing gender dysphoria and MTF transsexuality too. This is important because, while DES is a thing of the past and hasn't been used during pregnancy for decades, progestins were never withdrawn and are still quite widely used even now.

Hydroxyprogesterone caproate and dydrogesterone seem to be the two main ones; there's also one called allylestrenol that is apparently quite popular in Asian countries. There could be others, these are just the ones I know about. They're sold under many different brand names and formulations, Gravibinan being just one.

When doctors talk about them, quite often they're referred to as "progesterone", when in actual fact they're progestins (synthetic hormones designed to activate the same hormone receptors that progesterone does). This seemingly minor detail is quite significant because progesterone itself (in the quantities that occur naturally in the human body), doesn't prevent a male fetus from producing testosterone. Progestins, in the dosages commonly used during medical treatment, very probably do. One property of progestins is that they're extremely effective at suppressing testosterone production in adult men (spironolactone and androcur are both progestins, as is MPA, the drug most commonly used to chemically castrate sex offenders in the US!).