Women whose mothers were given a synthetic hormone during pregnancy have faced cancer and childbirth problems, researchers reported last night.
The artificial oestrogen was introduced in 1940 and given to millions of pregnant women. It was finally banned in the USA in 1971 for use in pregnancy.
Researchers studied the fate of daughters born to women treated with the hormone during pregnancy.
Many of these women are now in their 40s and 50s and the researchers said it was still unclear what risks they will face in old age.
The substance, diethylstilbestrol, was the first synthetic form of oestrogen. Problems were first identified in the late 1960s when there was an outbreak of a rare female cancer, clear cell adenocarcinoma or CCA.
The latest research included more than 6,500 women and the findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine last night.
They show that the women faced an eight times increased risk of losing a baby after birth and risk increased by two to four times of other complications of pregnancy, such as ectopic pregnancy, stillbirth and pre-eclampsia.
Risk of breast cancer was nearly doubled and there was also an increased risk of pre-cancer cells on the cervix <!cervical cancer>.
Researcher Dr Robert Hoover, of the US National Cancer Institute, said: "Our study carefully documents elevated risk for DES-exposed daughters for a host of medical problems-many of them also quite common in the general population.
"Without the sentinel finding of a very rare cancer in young women, and without the sustained follow-up of those who were exposed, we would not know the full extent of harm caused by DES exposure in the womb."
New England Journal of Medicine October 6 2011
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