112 – Primodos: the harmful hormone pill prescribed to millions of pregnant women

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Primodos was the pregnancy test pill containingsynthetic hormones that was prescribed to millions of women during the 50s, 60s and 70s that caused severe congenital malformations, stillbirths and miscarriages.Primodos contained etihylestradiol and norethisterone - two synthetic hormones that are still prescribed every day as contraception to millions of women. These risks were covered up by Schering, the drug company, and the Committee of Safety of Medicine decided not to warn people of the harms of these synthetic hormones as they did not want women to be “scared away” from taking contraceptive pills which contain the same synthetic hormones. In 1970, Marie Lyon’s GP prescribed her…