Quote from: StacyRenee on December 20, 2017, 04:25:05 PM
My mother had several miscarriages between 1963 and 1973 (something like 6 or 7). DES was pulled in 1971. I wasn't born until 1974. Is it possible to have had residual effects? Could I be a DES baby as well?
DES wasn't pulled off the market in 1971. All that happened was that the FDA withdrew their approval for its use as a miscarriage treatment. Doctors within the US continued to prescribe it "off label" for several years after that, and it continued to be used throughout Europe throughout the 1970s.
What's more, it was replaced as a miscarriage preventative by a drug called hydroxyprogesterone caproate, and there's good theoretical reasons for thinking that hydroxyprogesterone caproate could be doing the same thing. Like DES, it's a manmade version of a female hormone (in this case progesterone), and has feminizing and testosterone-suppressing effects in adult men. The crucial thing is that it looks like it's being given in doses high enough to act as a chemical castration agent.
If you look at this recently published article I authored (thanks Hormones Matter!):
https://www.hormonesmatter.com/maternal-des-exposure-intersex-development-males/it includes a section taken from the 1953 "Physician's Desk Reference", containing the manufacturer's recommendations for how DES should be prescribed. For chemical castration of prostate cancer patients, the induction dose was 3mg per day and the maintenance dose 1mg per day. As you can see from the table for preventing "accidents of pregnancy", the doses being used for miscarriage prevention were far higher than that (particularly during the second and third trimester). I believe that led to a situation coming about where a genetically male fetus was able to produce enough testosterone during the first trimester for male genital development to take place, but then had their testosterone suppressed to female levels or below for the remainder of the pregnancy, including the critical period when most of the differences between male and female brains are thought to arise (which is basically the entire second half of the pregnancy). Since testosterone and other testicular hormones are what drive male development, and in their absence, development occurs as female instead, this has produced people who are genetically male and look male, but have female brains. That's what I believe has happened anyway, and is why there's such a strong association between DES and MTF transgender.
If I'm right, it's very likely that hydroxyprogesterone caproate is doing the same thing, since the prescribing guidelines say to start it between week 16 and 21 after conception, and continue it for the remainder of the pregnancy. The dose used looks high enough to cause suppression of testicular hormones as well.
Unlike DES, hydroxyprogesterone caproate was never pulled off the market, and is still in use in pregnancies where the mother shows signs of going into premature labour, or has a history of preterm births. It's sold under the brand name "Makena" in the US, and as Proluton Depot elsewhere.
