Bendectin And Birth Defects (Page 2) (Top voted first)

I took this drug in the 1970's while pregnant. Am looking for the side effects to the babies. Drug has been off the market for many years. Not sure on correct spelling. Used for nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. Thank you for any help you can send me. Sincerely, Dana.

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Our son is healthy. He did inherit asthma, which I have and runs in my family. Otherwise is healthy, intelligent, hard working. My only concern was the birth defect they first warned users of. He has met someone he is very serious about, and I was trying to find out as much info as I possibly could. I believe I toke Benedictine for months. I had severe morning sickness for six months. Thank-you for your reply.

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I was also on bendictine for my 2 pregnancies in 1980 and 82. Both my son and daughter at the age of 24 started loosing their hair. We don't have family history of early hair loss, especially in women. Has anyone else had this problem? My son also was born with no enamel on his teeth.

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Oh, I forgot to add, prior to getting pregnant with my daughter, I had a miscarriage that during the pregnancy I was taking the drug for morning sickness. Years after learning the drug was causing all of these problems in these children of mothers who had taken Bendictine, I suspected the miscarriage was my body's way of disposing of what would have been in some way, a handicapped child.

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Dana - I also took this drug in 1979, 1980 and 1982. I have two daughters with defective reproductive systems. I am an RN. so far we don't know if my son has any problems. Also, both girls are Celiac... gluten intolerance. but the fact that they both have dual reproductive systems is really strong evidence that something is amiss! I wish to discuss thiis with you, if possible.
Dorie Neal No. California

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I also took bendictin in 1978-79, my daughter was born with club feet. I have aways thought there was a connection.

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I a reading all these comments with interest. I have a 27 year old who was diagnosed with Autism in1986. I have long since wondered the correlation (if any) between Autism and bendictin. I took it in 1981. I am shocked to here it was recalled. 3 other mothers I know, who have autistic chilren also took Bendictin in the 80;s,

Anyone know if there has been any studies on the connection with this and neurological diseases?

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I took the Bendictine in 1980 my daughter has been diagnost with MS ! my mother in law took the drug in 1955 my sister in law has since died from the results I firmly believe that it is related...

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I have a question regarding the drug Bendictine. My mother took this in 1973-74 when she was pregnant with me, and I have always had muscle problems and now in my 30's diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Has anyone heard of this type of effect. Please send an email or respond I would love to hear from you.

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Stephanie, MS is also an autoimmune diseases ! sounds like it is related to me.

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I took the drug Benedictine when I was expecting my first child in 1978. It was only for a very short time in my first trimester but my son was born profoundly deaf and there is no history of deafness in my family that I could find.Also my sister in law took it and her baby was born with a cleft palate.I have always thought my son's sensineural hearing loss was related to this drug.

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I couldn't help but respond to this site, I came across it by accident. My mother took this medication during the early weeks of her pregnancy (she also had 7month old twins at the time) She was taking it for severe morning sickness. I was born with a cleft palate, left limb deformity, abnormal kidney, hearing loss, etc.. (a syndrome called Klippel Feil Syndrome) I did not discover this until I was in my twenties. I was born in 1967. I am very healthy and independent today, but it has been a long road to get here. I did quite a bit of research on this topic 10 years ago when my mother gave me this information. The most notorious case was filed by Betty Mendecki (sp?) who had a case in the 80's against Merrill Dowell Pharm. Her son was born with a limb deformity as well as some other defects. I am surprised to see so many posts of this topic Just wanted to share, and thank everytone for sharing their story!

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I took bendictine. My daughter had a deformed toe and two deformed molars in her mouth. She also has severe mood swings. I took it because I had severe vomiting when I was pregnant. I blame the drug for my daughter's problems.

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WOW! All of these stories are amazing. I am 30 years old and my mother took Benedictine in 1978 for morning sickness while pregnant with me.
When I was about 21 years old, my gynecologist told me my cervix was odd and said I may have difficulty having children or not be able to carry a child at all. He also asked if my mother took morning sickness meds while carrying me, because it (no name was given) was known to cause reproductive defects in the female babies. When I asked my mother about it, she said yes she did because she had very bad morning sickness, but heard after using the medication for a while that it possibly caused defects, so she stopped.
Though I have not had any further testing/analysis of the cervix/uterus situation, it is very hard for me to think I may not be able to have children because of this drug, especially never having been married and looking to get married and have a family.
Is there any legal action or research going forth on this? Some of the possible defects caused by this drug are incredible. Something should be done. I have seen several people reply that there is defenitive scientific proof, and while yes, some of these unfortunate birth defects may have happened without Bendictine, all of these stories, and who knows how many others, can't just be pure coincidence.

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I am a child of the drug. Limb defects of L hand and L & R ankles turned inwards like club foot, I also barely escaped spina bifida and barely have skin covering my lower spine. I have had numerous surgeries to correct or at least lessen the effects. I went through bone lengthening on my hand to create a somewhat useful appendage. Recently a complete R ankle fusion. The effects of the drug on development, from my self and others is evident and important data. The arguments go both ways on if it did or did not cause any birth defects, but to have multiple types of birth defects in one shot is extremely extremely rare. The statistical evidence points towards a correlation and now, NO drug is told to be taken while pregnant, because even some of the greatest minds in science don't know how exactly a drug will interact with a developing fetus. I recently had a child and he is healthy, however I was scared to death that somehow my chromosomes were damaged by that drug. There is no doubt that doxylamine succinate can have a effect on developing fetuses.

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In Dec 1973 I was prescribed an anti-nausea suppository for morning sickness which lasted 24/7 for 4 months. The suppository would cure the nausea but put me to sleep for 8 hrs at a time if I was still or make me act drunk if moving around. At some point oral medication replaced that & I took it thru the 4th month, when the nausea subsided.
My daughter who will be 35 next month was diagnosed with Arnold Chiari Syndrome in 2005 after suffering from increasingly severe headaches since her teens, as well as other debilitating symptoms. She is scheduled for surgery soon.
I remember when this medication was taken off the market in the 1980s & at the time felt very lucky that she had no problems.
With this diagnosis I began wondering if this might have been one of the problems potentially resulting from this medication.

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I was prescribed Benedictine for my first two pregnancies in 1975 and 1977. I had morning sickness all 9 months, so I took it all 9 months. However, by my 1979 pregnancy, my doctor would not prescribe it for me, saying it was off the market. My daughter who was born in 1977 has problems with her cervix. She had several miscarriages before they determined the problem. To solve the issue, she has to get cervical cerclages to basically sew the baby in until she delivers. I am proud she now has 3 healthy children. However, her doctor asked her if I took Benedictine when I was pregnant and she asked me. I then found this website and was amazed that other daughters have the same reproductive problem. In reading everyone's stories, it is very sad that this one drug has caused so much pain and suffering.

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My mother took benedictine in 1975 for morning sickness with her 1st baby, he was found to have a heart defect, a hole in his heart and died at 3 months on the table during open heart surgery.

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My mother took Bendectin when she was pregnant with me, in 1979. I don't know if there's a connection to the drug, but I do suffer from chronic migraines and joint pain. And I have learning disabilites.

On a more technical note, Here's a few links for anyone wanting to learn more...

http:/­/­www.upenn.edu/­pennpress/­book/­744.html

http:/­/­www.birthdefects.org/­research/­bendectin_1.php

And it's worth noting that Bendectin was developed by the same company (DOW) that produced Thalidomide, the beastly drug that deformed roughly 10,000 children around the world.

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My mother took benedictine in 1978 during her pregnancy with me. She doesn't recall how long she was taking this drug. Although I was due September 9th, I wasn't born until September 28,1978 and had multiple defects. My mother contacted March of Dimes for help, but was rejected. I do not know the reason for denial.

I was born with developmental dysplasia of the hip, functional discrepancy of the legs, metatarsus adductus of both feet, and an innocent heart murmur.

The heart murmur self corrected and thankfully my parents were able to correct all the above problems with physical therapy and orthopedic appliances.

I had to have speech therapy in my preschool years due to impediments, glasses at age 7 due to severe near-sightedness, and was diagnosed with a slight hearing loss in both ears during grade school years. No treatment was done for the hearing loss, it wasn't severe enough. After many years of problems with concentration and impulsiveness, I was diagnosed with ADD at age 13 and put on Ritalin. The drug did not help and I took myself off of it after one year.

When puberty came at age 14, I developed heavy cramping during menstrual flow. When I started taking birth control at age 17, this was greatly reduced to only need an occasional ibuprofen . At age 23 I was pregnant with my first daughter. I was told that I had a tipped uterus and could cause problems with menstruation and pregnancy. After having my second daughter at age 27, I had
menorrhagia that lasted for months at a time. I was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome at age 31 and had hydrothermablation to alleviate the symptoms. I can no longer have children due to this procedure.

So, although I went through hell during my childhood, most of my problems have been corrected. The hip displasia is still there, and usually causes no pain or symptoms unless I lay on my side and do scissor kicks. I can feel it pop out of place and causes only slight discomfort. I do have lumbar back pain, but I have epidural injections twice a year and this helps tremendously. One foot is almost a half size smaller, but causes no problems finding shoes. The nearsightedness is still there, and I am contemplating having Lasik surgery to get rid of my glasses. My hearing loss doesn't need the help of hearing aids yet, but I cannot hear low pitched sounds. The ADD is still there, and I am not on any medications at this time. My menorrhagia is completely gone, not one period since february 2010.

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I took this drug in 1978 and 1979. My son has had many problems with learning disibilities when he was in school and has recently been diagnosed with bipolar. My daughter has had two surgeries for severe endometriosis and is currently attempting IVF. She too has had extreme menstrual cycles. It is extremely frightening to read all of these posts. Where there is this much smoke, there has to be a fire.

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used for morning sickness. Discontinued around 1973. Why? ## I was born in1967 my left foot was severely deformed. There...

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