Beginning in 1946, pregnant women with histories of spontaneous abortions were frequently treated with diethylstilbestrol, an artificial hormone. No one knows the number of miscarriages prevented by stilbestrol among the many thousands of women who took it; by 1960, questions about the estrogen compound's efficacy had induced most doctors to avoid it in treating pregnant women. But there is no doubt that in at least a handful of cases, daughters of women so treated have fallen victim to vaginal cancer. The mothers' use of stilbestrol is suspected of planting a hormonal time bomb...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
