A dosage of 1 mg/day DES is approximately equivalent to a dosage of 50 µg/day ethinylestradiol in terms of systemic estrogenic potency. Similarly to ethinylestradiol, DES shows a marked and disproportionately strong effect on liver protein synthesis. Whereas its systemic estrogenic potency was about 3.8-fold of that of estropipate (piperazine estrone sulfate), which has similar potency to micronized estradiol, the hepatic estrogenic potency of DES was 28-fold that of estropipate (or about 7.5-fold stronger potency for a dosage with equivalent systemic estrogenic effect).