Exposure to Distilbene: a study carried out in Occitania shows an astonishing prevalence of female transsexualism

Laura Gaspari et Marie Odile Soyer-Gobillard, les deux principales auteures de l'étude. PHOTOS S.G.

Are endocrine disruptors likely to increase gender dysphoria, the feeling of living in a body that belongs to the other sex ? A study carried out in the children of mothers exposed to Distibène, a synthetic estrogen used to prevent miscarriages from 1940 to 1977 in France, shows a prevalence of female transsexualism of 1.58% among children born boys compared to one in 16,000 in the general population.

These were the letters sent by the  "children Distilbène", a synthetic estrogen prescribed to 200,000 pregnant women between 1948 and 1977 to prevent miscarriages, which alerted Marie-Odile Soyer Gobillard. The biologist, former research director at the CNRS, has, with the Hhorages-France association (Halte aux HORmones Artificielles pour les Pregnancies), created in 2002, a solid database on the exposure of pregnant women to endocrine disruptors, in this case Distilbene (DES,  diethylstilbestrol) which will prove toxic for babies, then the children of these children.

Malformations, cancers, mental health, the deleterious effects, including transgenerational, of the molecule have been the subject of numerous studies, some carried out from the Hhorages cohort, with 1200 mothers and nearly 2000 children.

From 2015, emails with unpublished content arrive in the messaging system of Marie-Odile Soyer Gobillard, in Perpignan: "This n&#39 ;it's not without emotion that I browsed your site", written Marie-Olivia, born a boy in 1961, to a mother "under DES", in high doses: "Even the pharmacists were worried about the prescriptions my father presented to them".

"I have always felt like a girl"

"Since my childhood, I have had a deep gender identity problem" reports this first witness "in transition" after "very serious self-harm". She felt like a girl "at all times, even at a young age.& nbsp;The situation, which "clarified around 8-9 years", "n'only amplified".

"As far back as I can remember and as long as I can remember and there has been an awareness of gender", Christelle, born a boy under DES in 1963, also felt of the other kind. She also tells Marie-Odile Soyer Gobillard about 43 years of life in a man's body, "a total split of personality". Sthe first flirtations where she "affirms a virility to better hide a feminine fantasy". She will be a father and will live twenty years as a couple before her coming out, the operation, the change of identity, reconstruction.

Sarah also changed her gender. Another witness, now aged 70, has been on female hormones since 1997, but has not completed the transition process. 

"Even if DES cannot be generalized to all cases of transidentity, we continue to carefully follow all discoveries concerning it", writes Marie-Olivia cautiously.< /p>

The study relayed by the American NIH

Researchers and doctors, who are familiar with the sensitive subject, will take almost ten years to carry out the investigation which has just given rise to a scientific publication in the United States. ;in the Journal of Xenobiotics. Dr Laura Gaspari-Sultan and Françoise Paris, from the team of Charles Sultan, professor emeritus of pediatric endocrinology at Montpellier University Hospital and already author of publications on the transgenerational effects of DES, are the first two signatories. Two association leaders are associated with it: Marie-Odile Soyer Gobillard and Scott Kerlin, from the American association DES International.

The document, now relayed by the powerful NIH (National Institutes of Health) in the United States, concludes that "the prevalence of female transgender development is particularly high among male children whose mothers took DES during pregnancy. Within the group of individuals exposed to DES, the incidence of gender dysphoria was found in 1.58% of cases, while its frequency in the control population was 1.58%. about 1 in 16,000".

To reach these conclusions, the scientists selected and interviewed, if necessary examined, the "trans" boys born to a mother under Distilbene. It turns out that if this woman has had other boys, with the same father, but without taking DES this time, none of them are trans.

The authors conclude that "environmental endocrine disruptors" like DES, very close in its formulation to Bisphenol A, and "model for studying environmental endocrine disruptors", insists Charles Sultan, also a signatory of the article, "could represent a risk factor for the development of female transsexualism".  

The role of the brain in the construction of gender identity

"The hypothesis according to which DES boys could present with gender identity disorders is not an original idea. It was put forward in a never-published thesis from 2004. And Scott Kerlin estimates that in the American cohort, one in three DES boys is affected, but he is not a doctor, and again, the study was never published", reports Charles Sultan, today president of the scientific committee of the Générations futures association.

The mechanism of action of endocrine disruptors on the brain, causing gender identity disorders in adolescence, is on the other hand widely documented, such as the role of the brain in the construction of gender identity. 

Laura Gaspari and Charles Sultan explain that DES, and more broadly environmental endocrine disruptors, which mimic female hormones while blocking male hormone receptors, "modifies  the hormonal balance of the mother during fetal life and acts on the areas responsible for the acquisition of gender identity early in life.

The transgender subjects of the cohort "do not'anomaly of genetic origin", these are indeed XY men with no alteration in known male identity disorder genes. "These boys had no no significant genital malformation, nor disorder of sexual differentiation", specify the doctors.

Debate in the United States with Kennedy Jr

If the deleterious effects of distilbene, including over several generations, which earned a record compensation of 1.7 M€ to a victim, in 2011, are not discussed, the question of the role of the brain in the feeling of being a girl or a boy remains highly sensitive.

A study by researchers at Stanford University (California), who concluded last month that men and women are sexed through their brains,  ;nbsp;touched a "flammable subject", says the newspaper Le Monde, which relays the conclusions.

In the United States, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, nephew of John Fitzgerald, bearer of a "third way" between Trump and Biden, made endocrine disruptors a campaign topic. But by rushing immeasurably into the simplistic idea of ​​a direct link between the chemical substances present in the water that children drink and their future sexuality, that' 39;they are homosexual or transgender, the independent candidate, accused of "conspiracy", s'attracts the wrath of scientists.  

"Marie-Odile Soyer-Gobillard has been raising awareness among us for several years based on the testimonies she received. The medical community is very cautious on these issues while the prevalence of gender identity disorders, likely to appear in childhood, is increasing. Last year, when the subject was broached at an endocrinology conference, our research received a cold reception", recalls Laura Gaspari . 

"We took time to write the article, the subject is disturbing", concludes the endocrinologist. At the very least, he questions.

Marie-Odile Soyer-Gobillard: “Pioneering work”

President of the Hhorages association, Marie-Odile Soyer-Gobillard has put her cohort of patients at the service of research, whatever it may be. The pediatric endocrinology or psychiatry teams at Montpellier University Hospital or the molecular psychiatry team at Sainte-Anne hospital in Paris work. In "A Resilience", published in 2022, she reports on research on the toxic effects of Distilbene and tells her story as the mother of two children born under DES and who tragically disappeared, as well as that of ' other victims. The association and the sculpture (the works in the photo are hers) “saved” her. she said.

Under what conditions did the testimonies of these men born under Distilbene arrive, who always felt like women ? 

I received the first three letters in 2015. We asked our witnesses the same questions: did they have a genital malformation at birth, did they what they had changed sex, had a hormonal assessment been carried out on this occasion, since when did they feel like girls.

These first testimonies gave rise to a preliminary article presented at the Paris gynecology conference in 2016. There was no impact. The subject is very controversial, we must be very careful, it is a pioneering work and it was therefore important to associate Scott Kerlin with the study, he is at the head of the main association of DES patients in the United States.

The cohort you are working on is large enough not to be open to criticism, you have four transsexuals…

Yes, it is registered on the Inserm epidemiological portal. With 1,200 mothers and nearly 2,000 children, this is a large cohort. 

You give the floor to some of these witnesses in your book "A resilience or the three Marie-Odile, the fight of a scientist against synthetic hormones. What happens to them ?

Three have changed gender, they are photographer, composer, ULM professor. They have been married as men and have children, sometimes with health problems due to the transgenerational effects of Distilbene.

They all testify to the ordeal they went through, it's difficult to live with. 

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