DES for Tall Girls 

From 1956 to the 1970s, DES was prescribed to slow the growth of tall girls. The practice reduced after a 1971 discovery of its harms. A 1978 survey of paediatric endocrinologists revealed that while some continued using DES for various purposes, many avoided it due to unknown long-term effects and the fact that being tall is not a disease. DES was also used for hormone replacement therapy in teens with delayed puberty and as birth control for sexually active teens.

DES For Prostate Cancer 

DES is used as a hormonal therapy drug to treat advanced prostate cancer when other treatments are not suitable or no longer working. Most prostate cancers need the hormone testosterone to grow. Almost all testosterone is made by the testicles, and DES reduces the amount of testosterone made by your body. This can, in some cases, help control the growth rate of cancer.

DES in Agriculture 

DES was also used for years to increase cows’ growth. It was the first major hormone to increase how quickly and how large cows grew, starting in 1947 at Purdue University with a tablet implanted under the skin. Later, scientists at Iowa State College found that DES’s growth effects were more potent when given orally, so it was soon added to feed for cattle and sheep. 

DES’s use in cattle feed was formally approved by the FDA in 1954, and it quickly became a widespread practice. Within a few years, nearly 90% of all United States cattle fed from cattle fed supplemented with DES. 

Eventually, however, studies found high levels of hormones in chickens who ate feed with DES. Then, low levels of DES were detected in some cows’ livers, suggesting they received too much DES. The combination of those findings and the news about CCA in DES Daughters led the FDA to ban the use of DES in cattle feed in 1972.