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Diethylstilbestrol (DES) is a synthetic estrogen, once promoted for use in the prevention of miscarriages.
Diethylstilbestrol, or DES - The first synthetic estrogen. It was developed in 1938 by English biochemist
Sir E. Charles Dodds. Between 1948 and 1971 DES was prescribed to pregnant women after researchers erroneously concluded,
without proper testing, that it helped prevent miscarriages. 1971: DES was taken off the market, 33 years after it was first
developed. DES was marketed under a variety of names .
In 1999, Dr. Scott Kerlin began researching the effects of DES on the health of genetic males who had been
exposed prenatally. A substantial amount of research had been done on genetic women who had been exposed but relatively little
had been done on genetic males. When it became apparent that a significant portion of his research group were either transsexual,
transgendered or intersexed, he began to explore the possibility of a connection between prenatal DES exposure and gender
variance. Dr. Kerlin is not the first researcher to note a correlation between DES exposure and feminized behavior in genetic males, studies go back as far as 1973. However, Dr. Kerlin has delved much deeper than those who came before.
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