And age is irrelevant. Take the Ortho-Evra Patch, which was marketed to young women with sexy television commercials and fashion runway shows, but which caused blood clots, caused heart attacks and strokes. Or take synthetic hormones, often marketed to women experiencing menopause. In the 1960s, a popular new book by an industry-funded doctor called Feminine Forever argued that such women are “castrate,” “the equivalent of a eunuch,” but lucky for them, estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) could fix all that. Not mentioned was evidence since the 1930s and 1940s that ERT caused cancer. It took until 2002 for NIH researchers to finally confirm a significant increase in the risk of breast cancer, heart attacks, blood clots and strokes from ERT. See all of this explored in much more detail in the Center for Justice & Democracy’s report, The Bitterest Pill.
Speaking of hormones, DES was a synthetic estrogen approved by the FDA to prevent miscarriages and widely prescribed to women from the 1940s through the 1960s. DES did not work but instead caused cancer, infertility and other serious physical problems for the women who took it, and even more extensively, the children they carried who were exposed pre-natally. For almost two decades after the drug was proven ineffective, manufacturers continued to push the drug and expose hundreds of thousands of women and their offspring to risk. It was finally banned in 1971. But until women started bringing lawsuits, many DES exposed women did not know about the risks they faced.
But the lawsuits weren’t so easy. Many DES claims were declared “time-barred” – in other words, judges penalized women and their children for the latent nature of their injuries, or because they had not learned earlier of health risks that the company had covered-up. There was also the problem of identifying the correct manufacturer, until the courts developed “concerted action” and “market share” liability theories thanks to pioneering lawyers like our friend, Sybil Shainwald. So some cases have succeeded, and today we can report that four sisters with breast cancer and other severe reproductive problems in Boston, whose mother took DES, have forced Eli Lilly to settle their claims. This was after the company vowed to fight them in court, saying, “We believe these claims are without merit and are prepared to defend against them vigorously.” Until they didn’t. And there could be more settlements soon:
A total of 51 women, including the Melnick sisters, filed lawsuits in Boston against more than a dozen companies that made or marketed a synthetic estrogen known as DES.
The Melnick sisters’ case was the first to go to trial. The settlement was announced Wednesday on the second day of testimony.
Said one of the sisters, Michele Melnick Fecho, “who was 42 when she became the first sister diagnosed,”
"I think it's important to be your own advocate … If a woman – a DES daughter – knew this, she could get earlier screening."
Remarkable women.
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