Diethylstilbestrol second-generation effects

Even more disconcerting than the second-generation effects in women exposed to diethylstilbestrol during pregnancy is the possibility of third-generation effects. There is no certainty regarding these, but worrying cases have been reported at intervals over the last thirty years or more (SED-14,1449). 

The current difficulty in many reports of second-generation complications is to determine whether the mother actually took diethylstilbestrol during her pregnancy. In a case of a very large clear-cell carcinoma of the cervix in a teenager with no known history of maternal use of diethylstilbestrol, in view of the dates it was likely to have been non-drug-related, but the possibility of third-generation effects must also be borne in mind (13). 

Diethylstilbestrol was used extensively in pregnancies between 1940 and about 1975, in the belief that it could protect threatened pregnancies and counter the risk of spontaneous abortion. Toward the end of that period, increasingly clear evidence emerged that diethylstilbestrol could have an adverse effect on the second generation that... 

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