European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 02, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Dail Magazine Des daughter Dawn go calves parents in new York. A drag colled def by Patricia Mccormack United Porcu International rom 1941 to 1971. Millions of America s expectant mothers who wanted to preserve the fragile new life growing within their wombs took a synthetic hormone to pre vent a miscarriage. But rather than protect new life the Hor Mone was discovered to have threaten edit. The hormone similar to a Basic ingredient in morning after contraception pills widely used by College medical clinics today is called  three million daughters were bom to these women. Problems of the Vagina and cervix have shown up in 90 per cent of the girls. Some develop cancer. Some of the sons As the daughters need regular medical screening from puberty on but relatively speaking few Are exam ined or even know they Are Des Daugh ters odes  As a result a Des watch is spread ing across the nation. The network has reached into just a handful of mates California new York new Jersey Pennsylvania Illinois Massachusetts Connecticut. The Des mothers behind it urgently want to notify every state making sur that All Des offspring Are identified and examined regularly As medically indicated some As often As every four to six  attention was focused on the Des dilemma in May when a judge in de troit dismissed a lawsuit filed by 144 women and 40 husbands who alleged that the women bad contracted cancer because their mothers had taken the hormone during  Itata tills. Who said they would Appeal thed Ciston by Wayne county Cir Cuit court judge Thomas Roumell were seeking damages against the pharmaceutical Industry As a whole. But they could not specify the Brand name of the drug that each Mother took Orthe maker of the specific drug. The judge said the women could not sue All drug makers on the Assumption that they bad produced the drugs that caused the cancer. Eighteen companies were named. Cancer of the cervix was listed As the most common injury caused by the substance. The drug was prescribed under More than so Trade names. Finding be specific drug Brand name these Many Yean later is exceedingly difficult because Many prescription re cords have been lost or destroyed. In Chicago another Des daughter. Mary jute Morrissy has tiled a class action suit against the Chicago lying in Hospital the Eli Lilly & co. Other drug companies and laboratories. She filed on behalf of All Des daughters in Illinois. She wants All the daughters identified and told about the effects of Des. She also asked for Access to proper medical management of any disorders that might develop during the lifetime of All the de offspring. There Are other court actions utmost of the Des activist mothers and daughter who spoke with United press International said they Are More interested in legislation than litigation. Two persons Frances Fishbane of Plainview n.y., and Pat Cody of Berke Ley calif., said the legislative route is the Way to go getting state and Federal governments into the dilemma. Also they want to identify As quickly As possible All thedes daughters and sons and provide proper regular examinations and medical management of any resulting conditions. Cody is a member of the Des daughters committee of the coalition for the medical rights of women of san Francisco. Fish Bane is a founding member of Des watch started two years ago in new York with an and in a free paper. More than 700 others responded. A link Between the Des and cancer of the female reproductive tract in children of mothers who took the drug was found in 1971. The food and drug administration told doctors to Stop prescribing it to pre vent miscarriages. In one of those bizarre twists in the annals of Medicine proof also developed that the synthetic hormone really did t prevent miscarriages in the miscarriage prone women. The mothers who took the drugs did t miscarry authorities found because they got a lot of bed rest. Science simply had a mistaken notion of what the manmade hormones could do about miscarriages. The synthetic hormone still is being used however to fatten beef cattle and in the treatment of some medical problems. Including unusual Meno Pausal symptoms and certain kinds of cancer of the breast and prostate. Some doctors also use it today to sup press lactation in new mothers who do not breast feed their infants. It dries up the milk in the  than 250 cases of Clear cell Carci Noma of the cervix or Vagina have been documented in daughters of mothers who took  of the patients Range from seven to 27 years with the average being 17.s years. But up to 90 per cent of the daughters develop Adenois in the reproductive tract. The malignant potential of Adenois is not known. In a National cancer Institute pamphlet questions and answers about Des exposure before birth Adenois is de scribed As an abnormality. These include tissue placed abnormally on the cervix or  on its location this tissue is called vaginal Adenois cervical erosion ectropion. Its presence in the Vagina would be like having the tissue which lines the inside of the Mouth growing out onto the face. Although the tissue would be healthy it would be  As for the male offspring of Des mothers recent studies in mice have revealed an increase in sterility and genital abnormalities in male Des offspring. Surveys of human males have shown an increase in epic Idamal cysts although no malignant changes have yet been de scribed. Doctors up on the Des dilemma told United press International the sons should be checked by a urologist at the Onset of puberty and perhaps periodically after that in a search for abnormalities a they develop if they develop. Or. Serafina Corsello Huntington n.y., psychiatrist has been working with Des watch mothers and daughters. She and others have found some of the daughters become promiscuous after they learn about harbouring Adenois. I m damaged goods one said. I m All messed up Down  some just avoid dating and put marriage out of their minds. Others go on to have Happy marriages and Bear  no one knows what bad thing the exposure to Des will cause during Meno pause or later in life As the Des offspring head into the forties and fifties. Some mothers aware of the prob lems that can develop in their Young daughters have them examined Vongi Nally from six or seven on. Tiny Gyne ecological instruments have been developed for this purpose. How do you Tell a seven or eight year old or six year old for that matter John go Calvez a sanitation depart ment worker in new York talked about his nine year old Des  s been getting examinations for at least a year. She feels More secure if daddy goes with  she knows Why she goes go Calvez said. We told her she has a female prob Lem and when she pets medication for her problem she accepts  As the daughter gets older More details of the female problem will be delivered As gently As possible. Martha Cody in a College essay titled Bustness As usual wrote from her Home in Berkeley what it s like when your Mother tells you. I was lying on my bed Reading when my Mother came in and shut the door. " Martha i have something to Tell you her face was flushed. My mom has High mood pressure and when she s ups Ether color comes up. I started to get scared. She must have seen that 1 was fright ened because she reached out and took my hand. " Don t worry she said. Nobody s dead but her voice Shook As she spoke and i was still scared. She said. Well 1 Don t know where to begin. I guess you know i had a hard time conceiving. Before you were bom i had a miscarriage. " soon after that i got pregnant with you. The doctor thought i might not be Able to carry you full term so her voice cracked again and i Felt a Lump Rise in my Throat i hated it when my Mother cried. I Felt so helpless. I squeezed her hand and tried to smile i must have looked like a ghost and she laughed feebly i knew i would screw this up. The doctor gave me pills to prevent another miscarriage. I took them for the first seven months i carried Yoa they were a drug called diet Holsti . " i had forgotten about it until a year ago when i read an article about Des. It said that some of the daughters of those pregnancies have developed cervical cancer. That was when i started to cry. I tried not to but the tears kept slipping out of my eyes. I had read the article and had been outraged at this crime against women. But Reading about other people getting cancer and realizing that it could happen to me were two very different things. Now was just terrified. Mom was crying too. If i had known. I never would Hurt you. We held each other and cried and i realized More than Ever How much she  i saw a specialist a week later and heave me his diagnosis. I had patches of precancerous ecu near my uterus. I was t to use birth control pills oestrogen in the pills was thought to stimulate the growth of cancer. I was to come in every six months. He wanted to keep me under observation. No he could t Tell me what changes were Likely. The phenomenon was too new we would All just have to wait and see. That conversation took place when i was eighteen. In the three years since i have Learned More about Des. It was Given to millions of women during the 50sand 60s. It s still being used As a morning after Pill and it s fed to cattle to fatten them for Slaughter. Hundreds of thousands of Young women have the same condition As i and Don t know it. Many of them Are taking the Pill unaware that they May be compounding the damage to their bodies. The drug companies responsible for All of this have never admitted their guilt. They Are still researching new ways to suedes. The phrase Man s inhumanity to Man has become Concrete reality to me. My health was judged to be insignificant when compared with the lucrative business of marketing Des. I can imagine the men who arrived at that judgment. They weren t mad scientists just Good businessmen. Thursday june 1. 1977 the stars and stripes Page 13