The DES Sons International Network is a professional noncommercial health information and research network primarily for DES Sons: individuals born as males whose mothers received the endocrine disrupting synthetic estrogen diethylstilbestrol. Commonly called "DES" or "stilbestrol", this drug was prescribed to millions of pregnant women in North America, Europe, Latin America, and Australia between the 1940s and 1970s for preventing miscarriages.
The goal of this Network, which is not affiliated with DES Action or any government agency, university, or drug company, is to lift the veil of silence surrounding recognition of the full scope of adverse effects of prenatal DES exposure in males. Although there were as many males as females exposed to DES before birth (1 to 3 million each, in and beyond the U.S.), far less research and advocacy on behalf of DES sons have occurred during the last 30 years.
This summary lists the major identified and suspected adverse effects of prenatal DES exposure in males. This 2004 paper presented at Tulane University's E-Hormone Conference offers an overview of recent research into gender and sexuality issues of DES sons. Some of the implications of this research are reviewed in the article Are EDCs Blurring Issues of Gender? from the October 2005 issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.