Here are books DES Action members recommended.
We also have a more complete DES Bibliography.
DES Voices: From Anger to Action
by Pat Cody
This book relates the story of the DES tragedy and how a small but amazing group of determined individuals accomplished so much with so little. Even now, DES Action USA is considered a model of an effective grassroots consumer organization because of the passion and energy that generated Congressional hearings, followed by funding for DES research and educational campaigns. This is a story of which we can be proud.
Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival? — A Scientific Detective Story (Paperback)
by Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, John Peter Meyers
This story describes how the use of synthetic estrogens, including DES, has harmed humans and their environment. It is considered the must-read follow-up to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.
Toxic Bodies: Hormone Disruptors and the Legacy of DES
by Nancy Langston
Toxic Bodies is an accurate and compelling account of how the health care industry became enamored with synthetic estrogens and how government regulators failed to protect us from misguided enthusiasm for DES. Langston uses the DES example to show how women’s bodies carry the scars of exposures to environmental toxins.
DES Daughters: Embodied Knowledge and the Transformation of Women’s Health Politics
by Susan E. Bell
This intriguing and scholarly book describes the health movement that is the DES experience. Using personal stories of DES Daughters, Bell describes their reactions to medical care decisions made as knowledge and attitudes evolved over time. The feminist movement coupled with the involvement of organizations, such as DES Action and the DES Cancer Network, ultimately led to an expansion of research funding, which positively impacted health care treatment options.
Normal At Any Cost: Tall Girls, Short Boys, and the Medical Industry’s Quest to Manipulate Height
by Susan Cohen, Christine Cosgrove
This book reveals the horrible truth about drugs used to adjust the height of adolescent boys and girls who were threatening to be short or tall adults. DES was prescribed to prevent girls from growing “too tall.” It got an excellent review in the New York Times and was honored with the prestigious Science in Society Journalism Award from the National Association of Science Writers. Co-author Chris Cosgrove is a former member of the DES Action USA Board of Directors.
The Greatest Experiment Ever Performed on Women: Exploding the Estrogen Myth
by Barbara Seaman
For years, Seaman has been warning anyone who would listen that drugs like Premarin and Prempro not only do not work – they are dangerous. Part 1, “How Did All This Happen?” is a fascinating study of the history of estrogen promotion, from DES to the pill and hormone replacement therapy, and the growing concern among women about the safety of these drugs. The second part, “What Do We Know Now?” describes the aggressive marketing of these drugs.
DES Stories: Faces and Voices of People Exposed to Diethylstilbestrol
by Margaret Lee Braun with photographs by Nancy M. Stuart
DES Stories was the first book of photos and stories of those living with DES exposure, along with DES history, research, and resources. In photographic portraits and interviews, the DES Daughters, Mothers, and Sons tell, in their own voices, what it’s like to be DES-exposed. These are stories that heal as they reveal.
My Year of Meats
by Ruth L. Ozeki
My Year of Meats is a wonderful, strong, disturbing, funny novel. It is at times hilarious and absurd, and at times shocking and heart wrenching. The story, set in the early 1990s, relates the experience of Jane and Akiko, two women interweaving their lives with Japanese and American culture, filmmaking, the beef industry, and DES. DES Daughters will relate to Jane’s fears and anger about DES, and many will recognize themselves in Jane’s struggle with infertility.
Silent Trauma
by Judith Barrow
This novel is fiction, but the facts are well researched and true. It tells the story of four women who discover that they were all exposed to DES. After years of dealing with problems caused by the drug, they decide to spread awareness so others don’t have to suffer alone as they did. This book will help spread awareness of DES and is a must read, especially for DES Daughters everywhere.
Coming to Term: Uncovering the Truth About Miscarriage
By Jon Cohen
This book is a message of clarity and hope for couples who have suffered multiple pregnancy losses, a topic shrouded in myth and mystery. Cohen, a science writer, gathered information on miscarriage after he and his wife lost four pregnancies. He has provided a revealing and inspiring book for women affected by pregnancy loss – and for their partners, families, and close friends.
Our Bodies, Ourselves
by The Boston Women’s Health Book Collective
This highly respected publication provides women with comprehensive information about health, sexuality, and reproduction. The 2011 – 2019 editions include DES information provided by DES Action USA.
what i thought i knew
by Alice Eve Cohen
This autobiography was included on Oprah’s 2009 Summer Reading List. It is a familiar story to the DES-exposed, who are no longer surprised by the terrible mistakes perpetrated in health care. But the errors made in Cohen’s case were especially horrific, and another life was involved. Readers are taken on a roller coaster ride of emotions through nearly improbable twists and turns of fate – puzzling through the complexities of love, mothering, and family relationships.
Rose’s Colors: A Mother’s Journey
by Elizabeth Levine Wandelmaier
This is the inspiring, autobiographical account of how one family came to love and accept their child with multiple disabilities. Rose was born 8 weeks prematurely to Elizabeth, a DES daughter. The effects of Rose’s cerebral palsy and other disabilities dramatically altered life for this family. Rose’s Colors demonstrates the return to a challenging but good life. Elizabeth is the former Co-Director of the DES Third Generation Network.
Hormone Deception: How Everyday Foods and Products are Disrupting Your Hormones – and How to Protect Yourself and Your Family
By D. Lindsey Berkson
Berkson, a DES Daughter, describes how to protect your family by reducing exposure to the damaging hormone disruptors found in American homes.