Scott Kerlin Ph.D
“Because DES proved popular as a growth-stimulant in the cattle industry (Raun and Preston, 2002) for more than forty years (McLachlan, 2001), many consumers have also been exposed to unknown amounts of DES as it entered the food chain through beef consumption. Following the FDA restrictions on DES prescriptions in the U.S. in 1971, researchers began to document a range of confirmed and suspected adverse effects of prenatal DES exposure in females and males (Edelman, 1986).
Compared with the volume of published research on adverse effects in DES daughters, however, relatively few primary studies of DES sons have been published. The scope of known and suspected health effects among DES sons discussed in literature published since the 1950s includes (1) reproductive tract abnormalities; (2) infertility; (3) testicular cancer; (4) prostatic hyperplasia and cancer; (5) psychosexual effects; (6) psychiatric effects; and (7) effects on hemispheric laterality and spatial ability (Giusti et al., 1995; Pillard, et al., 1993; Reinisch and Sanders, 1992; Verdoux, 2004). ”
