(2) what research conducted overseas on the long-term effects of taking diethylstilboestrol on (a) women and (b) their children his Department has evaluated;
(3) what steps his Department has taken to identify and locate (a) women who were prescribed diethylstilboestrol and (b) the children of such women.
Diethylstilboestrol (DES) is an oestrogenic hormone formerly used in the treatment of threatened miscarriage.
In 1953 a large clinical trial in the United States showed no beneficial effect of DES on pregnancy outcome. In 1973, the UK’s Committee on Safety of Medicine (CSM) (now the Commission on Human Medicines) considered data from a US study that identified an association between the development of clear-cell adenocarcinoma of the vagina/cervix in the daughters of women exposed to DES during pregnancy. On the basis of the lack of benefit and evidence of harm the CSM wrote to all doctors in the UK with the recommendation that DES should no longer be used in pregnancy.
The Department is aware of several overseas studies, including a number in the United States (where diethystilboestrol was used extensively), which have investigated the long-term effects of diethystilboestrol on women who took it during pregnancy. A large ongoing study conducted by the National Institute of Cancer in the United States is investigating the risks of DES to children who were exposed in utero. The Department has not formally evaluated these studies.
The Department has in the past sought advice on this issue from the Advisory Committee for Cervical Screening. On the basis of this advice, the Department is of the view that a public education campaign would not be helpful. Many of the women at risk are not aware they or their mothers received DES. Proactively campaigning to find these women would create further anxiety.