[Hormonal tests of pregnancy and congenital malformations (author's transl)]

I.N.S.E.R.M. has carried out two prospective inquiries centred on the evaluation of the teratogenic action of drugs on human beings. The first survey was between 1963 and 1969 and the second between 1975 and 1977 and they were carried out in maternity hospitals. The first test, which was carried out on 12,764 women, had shown no overall association between the use of hormonal tests for the diagnosis of pregnancy (oestrogens-progestogens) and congenital malformation in the infant. The second study, which was carried out on 3,451 women who were questioned in the same way, shows that there is an excessive number of newborn babies with malformations when the mothers took certain products (oestrogens-progestogens when the progestogen was a derivative of testosterone). The problem of a methodological bias is discussed and the results are interpreted in the light of epidemiological studies that have recently been carried out abroad.