The Politics of Funding
Before we look at the health outcomes of DES exposure that have emerged so far, it is necessary to spell out just how little research has been done over the years. With the exception of The Tall Girl study, no research has been carried out in Australia.
In the United States it was only after consumer advocacy groups, including the newly formed DES Action USA, put pressure of the US government that a FDA DES Task Force was established in 1978. Right from the early days, it was a fight to get any funding for DES research. The relatively limited research funds available to study the DES population were constantly under threat. By the early 1980s research funding was more or less restricted to studies of DES daughters. DES sons were ignored, as were DES mothers.
Equally depressing is the realisation of just how much of the funding for medical research and ongoing drug education is linked directly or indirectly to the pharmaceutical industry.
The Effects of DES