Risks and Benefits of Hormonal Agents in Pregnancy

To the Editor: The report by Johnson et al. (N Engl J Med 293:675–680, 1975) creates in us a certain sense of déjà vu and anxiety. In recent years, the scientific community has become aware of some of the potential problems to the offspring that follow intrapartum administration of large amounts of steroidal and nonsteroidal hormonal agents to the mother. Most dramatic, of course, are the vaginal carcinomas arising in daughters of women treated in early pregnancy with diethylstilbestrol (DES). In studies extending over several years, it has been repeatedly demonstrated that treatment of newborn mice with estradiol 17-.