Prenatal exposure to diethylstilbestrol has long-lasting, transgenerational impacts on fertility and reproductive development.

ABSTRACT: Significant decreases in fertility have been observed over the past 50 years, with female conception rates dropping by 44% and male sperm counts decreasing by over 50%. This dramatic decrease in fertility can be attributed in part to our increasing exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Diethylstilbestrol (DES) is an estrogenic EDC that was prescribed to millions of pregnant women between 1940 and 1970 and resulted in detrimental reproductive effects in the offspring that were exposed in utero. Women who were exposed to DES in utero experienced higher rates of infertility, pregnancy complications, and reproductive cancers. Alarmingly, there is evidence to suggest that these effects may persist in the grandchildren and great grandchildren of exposed women. To define the transgen

SUBMITTER: Rogers RE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10464516 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature