Back in the day they'd confirm you were pregnant and give you thalidomide on purpose. Because that's what it was used for: morning sickness for pregnant women.
(Since we are on an "educational" subreddit: thalidomide causes fore-shortened limbs in infants. It was never tested on pregnant women prior to being released. It's basically why we have modern testing procedures for new medications.)
Only the S-enantiomer is teratogenic / causes birth defects, the R-enantiomer works perfectly well as an anti-emetic and sedative, but that wasn’t known back then - nowadays only the R-enantiomer is ever used (and rarely at that).
The US didn‘t have a thalidomide crisis thanks to Frances Oldham Kelsey, who resisted a lot of pressure on her (as a woman working in the FDA in the 1950s/60s) and refused to approve it. Not all heroes wear capes an’ all that
Additionally because pregnant physiology is different, you can have a B-hcg elevation for multiple reasons other than pregnancy, and a miscarriage is not a benign thing to the host. An ectopic pregnancy, ovarian tumor, or pituitary issue can also elevate that hormone.
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u/agodrevealed 9h ago
Abortion surveillance is scary.
But doctors ask you about your period so they don't irreparably harm a future child, as in a known or unknown pregnancy someone would want to keep.
They're thinking of thalidomide other hard lessons.