Is there any similarity between the fertility drug Clomid and DES?
There may be. Clomid®* (clomiphene), made by Hoechst Marion Rousel, is a fertility drug which acts upon the pituitary gland, so that it increases the hormones involved in ovulation (called LH and FSH), which results in a tremendous increase in ovarian activity. Clomid® “is capable of interacting with estrogen receptors.”4 It is therefore possible that it may affect a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer years after it is first used. *Clomid and the other commonly used fertility drugs have been noted to markedly increase the risk of ovarian cancer. In a large collaborative study which pooled the results of several studies, Whittemore et al5 found that women who used fertility drugs and who did not get pregnant had a 2600% increased risk in obtaining ovarian cancer compared to women who never took fertility drugs. Spiritas recalculated the data and noted that Whittemore’s data actually resulted in an 1100% increased risk6.
