Today MedShadow Foundation signed a contract to acquire DES Action USA. Starting February 2015 MedShadow Foundation will take on the continuing responsibility for educating the world about DES (diethylstilbestrol) — the world’s first synthetic estrogen and endocrine disruptor. We at MedShadow don’t take this responsibility lightly.
DES Action, founded in 1978, has worked to educate consumers about DES and collaborated with the NIEH (National Institutes of Environmental Health) and other research organizations to discover the damage DES caused and continues to trigger. As DES Action’s website states: “The DES experience is a true medical tragedy brought on by less than adequate drug testing, heavy promotion by pharmaceutical companies bent on making a profit and lax government regulation.” (Find more info.)
The staff of MedShadow Foundation is thrilled to join forces with DES Action. Our mission is to gather information on the side effects and the long-term effects of medicines and make it easy to find pertinent drug information on MedShadow.org. Our mission dovetails with the mission of DES Action — to educate and empower those exposed to DES.
I founded MedShadow just under 2 years ago because I’m a DES daughter. Because my mother took DES when she was pregnant with me, I was left infertile. For many years I was angry at the drug company, at the FDA and especially at my mother’s doctor. Life goes on and the impact DES had on me drifted to the back of my mind. Ten years ago my husband and I took guardianship of my nephew when he was 12 years old. Soon after enrolling him in his new school in our town, the principal called and demanded that we put our nephew on Ritalin. He was “off the scale ADHD,” the principal said. I took my nephew to an ADHD doctor who quickly wrote out a prescription for Ritalin. I asked if it was safe. Absolutely, the doctor swore. I asked about the long-term effects of the drug. None, he said. I asked for the studies to prove that assumption. He said there were no studies. “We’ve been giving this drug to kids for 20 years. If there was anything wrong with it, we would know.”
Really? I needed more assurance than that. My husband and I weren’t even convinced that our nephew had ADHD. He seemed like a 12-year-old with some issues. Our nephew never got the Ritalin. He had a tough time in school and he had to learn how to work things out. There are kids who need ADHD medicines, but we felt for our nephew that ADHD was a bad diagnosis. It took a lot of work, but he’s in college now and is a great kid.
That’s why I founded MedShadow Foundation. We want everyone who takes a medicine or a supplement to discuss the benefits and the long-term risks of a medication with their doctor in order to make the best decision for their families.
Together DES Action and the MedShadow Foundation will continue to grow our presence online and in social media. We will continue to give you the information you need on DES research and the ongoing effects that DES has in our lives and on future generations. Please contact me directly with your thoughts, comments and hopes for DES Action.
Welcome, DES Action.
