DES Fright

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I am a DES daughter and was disturbed by the news reports in The Crimson and other news services about the statistical likelihood of DES daughters to have more miscarriages and other pregnancy complications than the general population. I am upset not because, as one Radcliffe freshman said, "it scares me to death" but because the medical community is creating a flase impression of the DES problem. DES is a serious issue, several women have died of cancer. But more damaging is the scare techniques used by uncertain and uninformed physicians. When the DES issue first broke at the beginning of the decade, several women, on the advice of their doctors, had preventive hysterectomies. As is known now, only a tiny fraction of DES daughters will develop cancer. The surgery was unnecessary.

Curent reports are equally misleading. My mother took DES because she had four miscarriages. Most mothers had the same problem. It could bery well be that DES daughters have pregnancy complications because of hereditary hormone imbalances or other inherited problems.

DES daughters should be cautious. They should have regular pap tests. However they should not be frightened out of their wits by unthinking medical advice. Judith Fox 79-3