Drug side effects: Women at risk
In 1958, pregnant Montrealer Beatrice Reisen* began experiencing premature contractions. Her doctor prescribed bedrest and a drug called diethylstilbestrol (DES) to prevent her from miscarrying. What Reisen didn’t find out until much later was that the drug had been associated with birth defects and cancer in animals since the late 1930s and hadn’t even been proven to prevent pregnancy loss. Doctors were advised to stop prescribing it in 1971, when it became clear that DES caused serious cancers and reproductive problems in the children of women who had taken the drug.
Reisen’s twins, Linda* and Angela*, first learned of their DES exposure in their teens. Routine Pap smears revealed cervical cells at risk of developing into a rare form of cancer that is 40 times more likely in DES daughters. “It was on finding those cells that the doctor asked: ‘Do you know if your mother took DES?’” explains Linda.
Fortunately, neither of the Reisen sisters, now 50, developed cervical cancer. And unlike many DES daughters, both got pregnant without difficulty and carried their babies to term. But last year, after Linda underwent a breast reduction, doctors found precancerous cells in her breasts, necessitating a double mastectomy. New research indicates that breast cancer is almost two times more common in DES daughters after age 40 than in women whose mothers didn’t take the drug. Even worse, Linda is concerned that there may be more surprises in store for her family. “I worry for my children,” she says. “Does it stop with me? We don’t know.”
Women at risk: Hidden health dangers
A basic precept of medicine is the admonition to “first do no harm.” And yet, according to Anne Rochon Ford, coordinator of the Women and Health Protection coalition at York University in Toronto and co-editor of The Push to Prescribe: Women & Canadian Drug Policy, women have been “the proverbial canaries in the coal mine when it comes to the safety of drugs and medical devices in Canada.” Think back to the Dalkon Shield IUD in the ’80s, which caused infertility and life-threatening pelvic inflammatory disease. More recently, there was Depo-Provera, which can eat away at bone mineral density in women who use the contraceptive for a long period of time, and Diane-35 (marketed as a combined birth control-acne medication), which causes an increased risk of potentially fatal blood clots.
Those are just drops in the bucket, says Rochon Ford. One U.S. study showed that, of the 10 prescription drugs pulled from the market by the Federal Drug Agency (FDA) between 1997 and 2001, eight were more harmful to women than men, and six were associated with an increased risk of heart problems in women.
