A woman whose daughter was born severely disabled says she will always feel guilty for taking a pregnancy test drug she believes hurt her child.
Millions UK women who took Primodos between the 1950s and 1970s. A study has linked it to babies being born with malformations, but manufacturers insist there is no evidence.
The hormone drug test was given to women in Britain by GPs between 1953 and 1975 to test if they were pregnant, it was withdrawn in 1978 for safety reasons.
The two tablets worked by triggering a period if a woman was not pregnant, replacing urine samples testing which took up to a fortnight to give results. Campaigners claim it caused birth defects in their children such as blindness, deafness, heart and limb defects.
An alert letter was sent to all UK GPs in 1975 warning them of a possible association between the test and abnormalities and later a warning was placed on the packaging saying it should not be given to pregnant women.
What is Primodos?
Primodos contained the same mixture of hormones as in the oral contraceptive pill, it launched in the UK in 1961. The instructions were to take 1 tablet of two days. Bleeding will then follow in 3-6 days, if there is no pregnancy.
New research by Prof Carl Heneghan is examining all previous human studies concerning the drug has concluded that the “use of oral HPTs in pregnancy is associated with increased risks of congenital malformations”.
The study was presented to the UK government review led by the Baroness Julia Cumberlege into concerns about Primodos.
Marie Lyon, chairwoman of the Association for Children Damaged by Hormone Pregnancy Tests said the findings were a significant breakthrough for the families.
A spokeswoman said: “This follows a review by an independent Expert Working Group on Hormone Pregnancy Tests of the Commission on Human Medicines that has already found, consistent with Bayer’s view and based on all available data, that the scientific evidence does not support a causal association between the use of hormone pregnancy tests, such as Primodos, and birth defects or miscarriage.”
