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By Root 1979 0

a few articles raising the issue of prenatal DES exposure and feminization in males dating as far back as 1973, when researchers at Stanford found not only increased incidence of hypospa-dias but also “lower ratings on variables related to general masculinity, assertiveness and athletic ability” in twenty six-year-old boys whose mothers had taken DES, compared with a control group. A study published in 1992 by researchers at the Kinsey Institute shows significant differences in spatial ability between DES-exposed males and their brothers. The sample sizes in both studies were small (ten in the Kinsey group and forty in the Stanford study). However, when one considers that seven cases of clear cell adenocarcinoma in 1970 led to an investigation of the relationship between DES exposure and cancer in exposed females, one wonders why the investigation of the effects of DES on male psychosexual development and reproductive anomalies has been so muted. Even if the sample sizes have been small, “it’s not like the topic has never been examined,” says Scott Kerlin. “I’m beginning to think that sample size isn’t necessarily the most critical factor to consider when examining the published ‘findings’ of DES research.”

Pat Cody, founder of DES Action, has responded to Kerlin’s persistent questioning about the lack of attention to these issues by that organization by noting that “this subject, as I don’t need to tell you, is one that no one wants to look at and therefore we do not have any good research with a large number of random subjects and equal number of controls.” Kerlin, who admits the limitations of existing studies, remains frustrated by the unwillingness of DES lobby groups and funding agencies to investigate further the concerns of DES sons. “Since we cannot create fresh studies of DES in humans and trace its effects from birth, we are pretty much forced to look at the existing adult populations. But it would be almost impossible to gather such a population in one place physically in order to verify who they are and whether they were, in fact, DES exposed. That is, unfortunately, one of the reasons that the control/cohort studies like the Dieckman cohort from the University of Chicago have continued to be used in CDC and other DES sons and other DES sons’ longitudinal tracking studies,” he says.

Because those studies have not posed any questions about subjects’ gender identity or sexual orientation, they provide no support for the contention that DES affects the psychosexual development of males exposed in utero. Even the evidence linking other reproductive effects in males (such as cryptorchidism, hypogonadism, and epididymal cysts) is considered inconclusive. Yet funding for further research on sons’ issues has been sparse. “Of course there are a handful of people saying, ‘Yes, we need more on sons.’ But when push comes to shove, sons’ issues, even the ones that are least threatening, are being ignored,” Kerlin notes. “Oh, maybe they’ll discuss the possibility of increased risk of testicular cancer later this year, when the CDC holds its teleconference on DES sons’ health, but I doubt much else is going to be addressed. It seems like this is an issue where the National Cancer Institute has been just so influential that other groups have been ignored.”

The difficulties of researching the effects of DES on sons is acknowledged by the sexologist Milton Diamond, who told me that “the problem with DES is that there is no test that we can give today to determine if an individual has been exposed to DES. There are many individuals who say, ‘Well, my mother took DES,’ and you say, ‘How do you know?’ and they say that their mother told them or an aunt told them. Could have been, but there’s no proof.” In the larger population, there may well be DES children with gender issues, but “not only will the guys themselves be in the closet, but so will the physicians and parents.” “This is what we get from DES Action: ‘There’s no proof,’” adds Dana Beyer. “You know, there was no ‘proof that DES caused vaginal carcinoma either. There