Newly Released and available online:

Centres of Excellence for Women's Health Research Bulletin -
Volume 3, Number 2, Spring 2003

Safety First: Women and Health Protection

Both women and men, young and old, suffer the ill effects of drugs
and medical devices that are inadequately tested and then
insufficiently monitored once they are released. However, on closer
examination, it would seem that women have been the proverbial canaries
in the coal mine when it comes to the safety of drugs and medical devices
in Canada. Consider the dubious legacy. DES (diethylstilbestrol), a hormone
drug, was known to cause serious reproductive problems in animals as early
as the 1930s, and was shown to be ineffective in preventing miscarriage in
women by the mid- 1950s. Yet it was prescribed to pregnant women until the
early 1970s when serious cancers and other reproductive problems began to be
identified in the daughters and sons of women who had taken DES.
In the 1970s, the Dalkon Shield intra-uterine contraceptive device was found
to cause infertility and life-threatening uterine infections only after it
had been approved for marketing. In the late 1980s, the Meme breast implant
was associated with questions about serious systemic complications and
eventually removed from the market. Women’s health and disability advocates
raised concerns about injectable and implanted contraceptives, such
as Depo-Provera and Norplant, soon after marketing had begun, but
warnings about harmful effects were only issued years later after millions
of women worldwide had used them. Most recently, in 2002, the finding that
harm outweighs benefit with long-term use of hormone replacement therapy,
comes after millions of women were prescribed hormones and before
research had proved efficacy and long-term safety. There is increasing
evidence for concern that harmful effects to animals from estrogens in the
environment may also translate into human harm....

Read more in “Safety First: Women and Health Protection.”

Full issue available for free at: http://www.cwhn.ca
Hard copies also available by request from [log in to unmask]

Contents Include:
· Hormone Therapy: Health Protection Lessons from the Women’s Health
Initiative
· Registering the Impact of Breast Implants
· Women and Adverse Drug Reactions: Reporting in the Canadian Context
· Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Prescription Drugs
· International Harmonisation of New Drugs Regulation: Not in Women’s Best
Interest
· Communicating about Environmental Risks and Infant Feeding
· Canadian Women’s Health Network
· Beyond DES ­ Hormones in the Environment
· DES Action Canada
· The Over-Prescription of Benzodiazepines

Mona Dupré-Ollinik, BSW, BA
Coordonatrice de liaison/Outreach Coordinator
Canadian Women's Health Network/Réseau canadien pour la santé des femmes
419, avenue Graham, Suite 203
Winnipeg (MB) R3C 0M3

Tel: (204) 942-5500 ext,/poste 13
Fax/Télécopieur: (204) 989-2355
Toll free/Numéro sans frais: 1-888-818-9172
www.cwhn.ca
e-mail/courriel: [log in to unmask]

TTY 204-942-2806
TTY toll free number 1-866-694-6367

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