‘We Never Talked About It at Home’: Diethylstilbestrol, Impacted Families and the (De)construction of Ignorance from Below (Belgium, 1970s–Present)

Abstract

Summary Drawing on oral history, this article analyses how Belgian families affected by diethylstilbestrol (DES) both constructed and deconstructed ignorance of the transgenerational side effects of this hormone from the 1970s onwards. It is the first historical study on the (lack of) knowledge production about DES in Belgium, where until today research has been left to investigative journalists who have pointed to the possibility of a cover-up. This article takes a different approach, producing a multifaceted long-term analysis that also looks at other factors that might have led to ignorance, wilful or otherwise. The emphasis here is on how impacted families themselves maintained or broke silences about DES across generations and over time. By focussing on women’s experiences, this article contributes a bottom-up perspective to existing studies of ignorance production relating to the side effects of hormones, which tend to focus on governments, medical communities and pharmaceutical industries.