Upper genital tract abnormalities and pregnancy outcome in diethylstilbestrol-exposed progeny

Abstract

Previous studies have suggested that there is an association between genital tract abnormalities and pregnancy outcome in women exposed to diethylstilbestrol (DES) in utero. In a collaborative study, 676 DES-exposed women had hysterosalpingographic examinations, and the findings were related to the outcome of pregnancy in 327 of these women. The findings revealed that (1) there is a considerable variation of frequency of different types of upper genital tract anomalies in women from different sources and with different motivations for enrollment in the study, (2) the presence of structural cervical changes and vaginal epithelial changes are markers for the likelihood of abnormalities in the uterine fundus, (3) women with upper genital tract abnormalities have increased odds for poor pregnancy outcome as compared to women with normal hysterosalpingographic findings, and (4) although some abnormalities were most often or consistently associated with poor pregnancy outcome, no specific changes could be related to specific types of pregnancy outcomes.