Exposure to female hormone drugs during pregnancy: effect on malformations and cancer

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate whether the use of female sex hormone drugs during pregnancy is a risk factor for subsequent breast and other oestrogen-dependent cancers among mothers and their children and for genital malformations in the children. A retrospective cohort of 2052 hormone-drug exposed mothers, 2038 control mothers and their 4130 infants was collected from maternity centres in Helsinki from 1954 to 1963. Cancer cases were searched for in national registers through record linkage. Exposures were examined by the type of the drug (oestrogen, progestin only) and by timing (early in pregnancy, only late in pregnancy). There were no statistically significant differences between the groups with regard to mothers' cancer, either in total or in specified hormone-dependent cancers. The total number of malformations recorded, as well as malformations of the genitals in male infants, were higher among exposed children. The number of cancers among the offspring was small and none of the differences between groups were statistically significant. The study supports the hypothesis that oestrogen or progestin drug therapy during pregnancy causes malformations among children who were exposed in utero but does not support the hypothesis that it causes cancer later in life in the mother; the power to study cancers in offspring, however, was very low. Non-existence of the risk, negative confounding, weak exposure or low study-power may explain the negative findings. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaign

Pregnancy weight gain from 1960s to 2000 in Finland

“…In the 1950s, women in the highest socioeconomic group may have used mainly private services, but, in the 1960s, practically all women attended the municipal maternity centres. 12,13 Our study is the first to report pregnancy weight gain over time by prepregnancy weight. The mean pregnancy weight gain increased in all BMI categories over time.…”

“…The cohort has been described in detail earlier. 12,13 The second cohort included 2048 women, who participated in a randomised controlled trial examining the benefits of routine iron prophylaxis during pregnancy in Tampere area in 1985-1986. 14 Tampere is one of the major towns in southern Finland.…”

Systolic Hypertension in Pregnancy and Cardiovascular Mortality: A 44-Year Follow-up Study

“…The present analysis uses data from a cohort of Finnish women, the details of which have been reported previously (11,12). Since 1944, municipalities in Finland have offered free prenatal care.…”

Preventing excessive weight gain during pregnancy – a controlled trial in primary health care

“…The cohort has been previously prescribed in detail [22,23]. There were no differences in breast or other estrogen-dependent cancers between hormone-exposed and control mothers [22]. Visits to a private doctor were used as an indicator of socioeconomic status, since no information on education or occupation at the time of the index pregnancy was available.…”