Cancer and Man-Made Estrogen (DES)

Diethylstilbestero or DES

Beginning in 1949 there was post-war excitement in the agricultural area. Medical researchers had found a promising use for a chemical--called diethylstilbesterol (DES)--they had created in their laboratories. This was a sex hormone that could be implanted in male turkeys to make them fatter and meatier. 

Something to be even more thankful for as Thanksgiving rolled around?

Or instead something to increase women's death rate from cervical cancer?

Perhaps we will never really know because government-funded researchers only tout their presumed successes. They hide the failures under labels marked "TOP SECRET" or "NATIONAL SECURITY".

DES Used by Farmers to Fatten Turkeys

Olean Times Herald - Sept. 14, 1949
Turkey Field Day Planned Near Titusville

TITUSVILLE, Pa — Turkey growers of northwestern Pennsylvania will have a field day starting at 1:30 p m on Thursday, September 22 at Bob Lowers' Valley View Turkey Farm. Lowers' place is located four miles south of Titusville just off Route B. Turkey growers and scientists have learned to surmount many obstacles. One of their latest is to stimulate turkeys to put on more flesh and fat by a biological chemical process. This is one by injecting two small white pellets under the loose skin of the turkey's head. These pellets are smaller than kernels of wheat and chemically are known as diethylstilbesterol.When Injected into toms 19-21 weeks of age they stimulate the birds to put on more flesh and fat. This fine finish allows early hatched toms to be marketed earlier.

DES Used To Prevent Miscarriage

THE GETTYSBURG TIMES, JULY 2, 1988

By ROBERT C. PARK, M.D., President, 

The American College of Obstetricians And Gynecologists

For the past several years, there have been different opinions on how frequently you should have a Pap smear. In January, several national medical organizations formulated one set of guidelines for you and your physician to follow. The American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, the American Medical Association and The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist were among the groups that agreed to the new guidelines. Those guidelines state that all women who are 

• at least 18 years old, or 
• who are sexually active before age 18, 

should have a Pap smear once a year. If three consecutive annual smears are negative, and you are not at high risk for any of the conditions that could lead to cervical cancer, then your doctor can decide if you need to continue having the test every year, or if you can have it on a less frequent basis. 

Many women should continue to have the exam every year, even if three consecutive smears are negative.

These women are considered to be at high risk for cellular changes on their cervix. They are 

• women who have had more than one sexual partner, or 
• whose partner has had more than one partner, 
• those who were sexually active before age 18, 
• those with a history of human papillomavirus or other vaginal infections, and 
• those women whose mothers took diethylstilbesterol (DES) during their pregnancies.

If a woman is in one of these high-risk groups, an annual Pap test will provide an early warning system to protect her health and her life. If an abnormal condition exists on your cervix, the Pap smear can detect it in the beginning stages when it can be treated and cured. If you are not sure whether you fall into a high-risk category, it is a good idea to continue to have a Pap smear every year.

DES Used by Men to Prevent Sexual Complications from Mumps

 

THE OGDEN (UTAH) STANDARD-EXAMINER 
DECEMBER 5, 1954

NEW YORK (AP)—Daily doses of a sex hormone, diethylstilbesterol, look promising for preventing sex gland complications in men attacked by mumps, Lts. William T. Hall and Raymond N. F. Killeen, U. S. Naval Hospital here, write in the U.S. Armed Forces Medical Journal. The hormone is given before there are any signs of involvement of the sex glands by the mumps virus. Only nine out of 63 men getting the hormone developed the complication, compared with one-third of 34 men not getting the hormone treatment.

Human Papillomavirus Linked to Cervical Cancer

THE DAILY GLOBE, Ironwood, Mi. - Friday, March 2, 1984

Wart-causing virus linked to cervical cancer 

DETROIT (AP) — Researchers say they have linked a sexually transmitted virus that causes genital warts to cervical and other cancers. Further studies could could lead scientists to a vaccine for human cancer, a gynecologist at Detroit's Sinai Hospital said Thursday. 

"The exciting thing about this is that it's likely, before the end of the decade, to build a vaccine for this virus and introduce a program for the prevention of a primary human cancer," said Dr. Richard Reid. The "human papillomavirus" has been linked to cervical and other cancers in studies conducted in Detroit and at the German Cancer Institute in West Germany, Reid said. In samples of vaginal skin, 95 percent of the cancers and 88 percent of  "precancers" showed the virus, compared with only 12 percent in normal specimens, Reid said. The virus causes visible genital warts around the penis or anus of men, but in women, "the lesion can't be seen with the naked eye," he said. 

In a separate study conducted by German virologist Harald Zurhausen, the DNA in 89 percent of the 55 cancerous specimens tested reacted positively to the virus, indicating that the virus was present, Reid said. "At this time, it's true to say the number of deaths from cervical cancer has been falling," he said. "The death rate in young women is actually increasing rather than decreasing, and the number of people with this virus has also increased. 

"If not for the pap smear program, we'd have a tragic epidemic of cervical cancer." 

Other factors contributing to cervical cancer include smoking, herpes infection and a person's immune system!

Women are at high risk if they were under 20 years old when they had their first sexual experience, had more than three sexual partners or had intercourse with a man who had had multiple partners, according to the American Cancer Society.

"Another factor that is important is that there are at least five of these viruses that are sexually transmitted," Reid said.

"For both males and females, this is a persistent virus, and getting this virus often means a lifelong infection," he said. "Or some people are lifelong carriers, and so they can have no awareness, themselves, of the disease and yet infect other people, or ... slowly have a malignancy grow in this area of chronic infection." The virus may also be involved in other squamous cancers, or cancers involving the skin or epidermal cells, said Reid. "It is suspected also in cancers of the mouth, throat, larnyx, and bronchus."