Hi everyone,
I'm struggling with this too. My grandma used to say she never took DES. My mom had several miscarriages before I was born. My grandma just before her death admitted that she did take DES. I myself had a miscarriage in my early twenties. Around age 25, I had a Pap smear showing grade 4 changes, and I also have an abnormal cervix and discharge issues that are indicative of DES. The gynecologist at the time said they only saw this in DES daughters and asked if I was a DES granddaughter. At the time, I said no, but recently I found out that I actually am. However, there's not much known about the real effects on DES granddaughters because diagnoses often don't make the connection, and doctors don't always investigate. I'd now really like to have it further examined, but my GP is reluctant because the few studies that exist say that DES granddaughters don't get the same symptoms as DES daughters. Are there any people here who managed to get this further examined as a DES granddaughter?
Hey girls,
I'm also a granddaughter. My grandma took DES during pregnancy with both my dad and my aunt.
Although he never had fertility issues, my aunt definitely did. She couldn't get pregnant for a long time and had a very irregular cycle, almost no cycle at all.
She went through a lot of IVF treatments and when she finally got pregnant, she gave birth around 25 weeks to a NICU baby. My cousin is now 17 and has had multiple surgeries for his heart and airways. He's also partially blind now.
My aunt also got breast cancer, which is another known side effect of DES.
I've had heavy bleeding and unbearable pain since I started menstruating, so I started taking the pill, but I have to keep switching because of severe side effects. So now I have a lot of symptoms both during and outside my period, like severe abdominal pain and a few other issues. I'm currently in treatment with a gynecologist, and they suspect endometriosis. There's no known link between DES and endometriosis in granddaughters, but endometriosis does increase the risk of cancer and fertility problems.