http://www.boston.com/dailynews/278/wash/Gulf_War_vets_children_have_mo:.shtml

Gulf War vets' children have more birth defects, study suggests

By Suzanne Gamboa, Associated Press, 10/5/2001 17:42

WASHINGTON (AP) The children of Gulf War veterans are two to three times as likely as those of other vets to have birth defects, suggests a government study based on questionnaires and interviews with the veterans.

Gulf vets reported more miscarriages, too.

The research, published in this month's Annals of Epidemiology, follows other studies that did not find evidence of greater risk of birth defects.

The latest study, conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs and Johns Hopkins University scientists, surveyed Gulf and non-Gulf veterans from all four service branches. Just under 21,000 active and retired military, reserve and National Guard members answered questionnaires about their health, reproductive outcomes, exposure to risk factors and other issues.

Many of the veterans who did not respond to the questionnaire were interviewed by telephone. About 70 percent of those who were sent questionnaires participated.

''Veterans are very concerned that they have a higher risk of bearing children with birth defects,'' said Dr. Han Kang, a Veterans Affairs epidemiologist and the lead researcher.

''There are two or three studies that tried to address that concern and did not find any evidence of that,'' Kang said, ''and now we are reporting at least a strong possibility of that happening.''

The Pentagon says an estimated 90,000 troops who served in the Gulf War complain of maladies including memory loss, anxiety, fatigue, nausea, balance problems and chronic muscle and joint pain. The ailments are known collectively as Gulf War Syndrome. Some veterans also worry that their war exposure harmed their reproductive health, making them more likely to have babies with serious birth defects.

Millions of dollars have been spent on government studies on the subject. A presidential panel in December concluded that none of the research has validated any specific cause and that more study is needed.

The earlier studies that found no unusual risk of birth problems among Gulf vets were based on reviews of hospital records. Critics say a weakness of the latest study is that it used veterans' opinions of their children's births rather than hospital data. Some suggest, for instance, that Gulf veterans, aware of publicity about Gulf War Syndrome, might be more likely to consider their children as having birth defects.

Kang and his colleagues said they don't believe the results were skewed this way, but are double-checking the veterans' reports against hospital records.

The Pentagon has cited the previous studies in maintaining that Gulf War service and birth defects are not linked. Kang's study is worth further investigation, a Pentagon official said, but he remained skeptical.

''If the risk of having a child with a birth defect was that much increased simply by having served in the Gulf War, I find it hard to believe that previous studies would have missed that,'' said Dr. Francis O'Donnell, an epidemiologist with the Pentagon's Office of Gulf War Illness, Medical Readiness and Military Deployments.

The study focused on first pregnancies that ended after June 30, 1991. The researchers analyzed information on miscarriages, stillbirths, pre-term delivery, birth defects and infant mortality.

Male Gulf War veterans reported having infants with likely birth defects at twice the rate of non-veterans. Female veterans were almost three times more likely to report children with birth defects than their non-Gulf counterparts.

Likely birth defects included webbed digits, heart murmurs, chromosomal abnormalities and brain tumors, while excluding what the researchers considered developmental disorders, perinatal complications and pediatric illnesses.

Similar differences were found when researchers narrowed the births to those that resulted in moderate to severe birth defects, described as those requiring possible surgery or chronic medical supervision.

Both male and female veterans were more likely to report miscarriages, but the increase was statistically significant only for male Gulf War veterans 1.62 times as many as non-Gulf War veterans.

The prevalence of stillbirth, pre-term delivery and infant mortality did not differ significantly between the two groups.

Dr. Donald Mattison, March of Dimes medical director, said more research should be done on environmental factors to try to understand the origin of the birth defects. And, he said, doctors should consider the potential link between Gulf War exposure and birth defects when offering reproductive counseling.

On the Net:

Annals of Epidemiology: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505746

Department of Veterans Affairs: http://www.va.gov/

Pentagon office on Gulf War Illness, Medical Readiness and Military Deployments: http://deploymentlink.osd.mil/

March of Dimes: http://www.modimes.org/

-- Anonymous, October 05, 2001

Answers

I had 5 miscarriages while married to my first husband..... and somewhere there was a report that Viet nam vets had more miscarriages that non vets.

Don't believe I am going to post this...but when ever we "did the did"

I used to tell him I was "Allergic" to "it" I would be very uncomfortable until it was cleansed away...talked it over with a dr....and he told me he had other women say that, too. That the seman burned and was uncomfortable till they bathed. these same women, had a number of miscarriages, also...I think it (agent Orange) did something to the fluids, either made then more acidic, or something......, I KNOW I am "maturing"...I ain't even embarassed telling that!!! oh yea..I did have one beautiful daughter.

-- Anonymous, October 05, 2001

SAR, do you have a before and after Gulf War comparison from the same guy?

(And guys, you know some of you are shooting pure battery acid.)

-- Anonymous, October 06, 2001

Brooks, nope, just knew him after he came back from Nam...

but I can tell you this.....with this DH..there is NONE of the discomfort, burning, or anything!!!!!!!! and NOT one infection "down there" since I married this one.... ;)

-- Anonymous, October 06, 2001