Hailee Rogers

Prenatal Hormones Affect on Sexuality and Sexually Differentiated behavior

It has been brought about and clinically trialed for manys years on the controversy of prenatal

hormones having an impact on sexual orientation and behavior from childhood to adulthood.

There are many contemplations that one's sexual orientation, whether being homosexual or

heterosexual is only to be depicted or judged by one's learning or being introduced to the concept

and his/her social interactions or society itself. Close to recently there has been a change in that

view due to testing and how studies have shown that prenatal hormones can have a major impact

on a male or females sexual orientation and behavior. Its important to know this and how it

operates because a good majority of people today arent very accepting to people who are

attracted to the opposite sex and are more likely to disown their own children because of it.

These kinds of studies would help future parents out a lot to know that certain developmental

hormones could be altering their children in ways they dont want. This topic interest me because

I have always found people that are in the LGBTTQQIAAP community to be intriguing and

clear minded human beings and I fully support all of them, But Its confusing yet interesting that

some people could have been made this way simply by a mix and mingle of prenatal hormones

and the prenatal endocrine.

Basic sex determination starts with your genetic information and the primordial gonads

that determine whether the fetus develops a female reproductive system or a male reproductive

system. Along with sex determination there is sex differentiation which is when the testicular

hormone is either present (male) or not present (female) concerning whether you are a male or
female. Both of these processes are controlled under the gonads. A similar process like this that

can alter sexual differentiation prenatally is being under the influence of Gonadal Steroids.

Gonadal Steroids can impact both your brain and your behavior. The two main ways

these are presented is one by organizational effects which will be the main focus of this essay

and that are enduring and occur early on in ones life and activational effects are short term, and

they wax and weaken as hormone levels fluctuate. Activational effects almost always occur in

adulthood. These concepts are easily told apart by their long term or short term of the effect and

when it occurs. Heres a good example of an activational effect from an article The activation

of female sexual behavior by estrogen and progesterone near the time of ovulation, and the

decline in sexual behavior at other phases of the cycle, when these hormones decline.

(PHOENIX, GOY, GERALL, & YOUNG, 1959, p. 65:163-196).

Although it would wicked for physicians and clinicians to test pregnant women for

personal interest.There are other ways to tell if prenatal hormones are having any effects in early

childhood and this is by sex development disorders. Including the hormones that are prescribed

to women both determinants have a great influence in the placement of sexual orientation.

Studies of this have been examined through amniotic fluid, in the maternal blood, as well as just

simple exposure to prenatal androgens. A commonly tested sex development disorder is

congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) and a good definition of this is CAH is an autosomal,

recessive disorder that occurs in approximately 1 in 5,000 to 1 in 15,000 births in Europe and

North America. In about 95% of cases, the disorder results from mutations in the CYP21A2 gene

that encodes the enzyme, 21-hydroxylase (21-OH) (New, MD, 1998, p.311328). The enzyme

known as 21-OH intervenes with the production of cortisol which affects female androgen levels
and causes a major change in genitalia causing females to be born with a condition called genital

virilization, which makes it easy for physicians to mistake females for girls. Girls are more likely

to be born with this sex development disorder.

As more Clinical studies come into play there're less answers to whether there are more

technical or advanced hormones that can have an influence on ones sexual orientation and

behavior. The studies seem to get more and more difficult as finding answers and ethical ways to

find answers bcom a struggle without violating someone. There are many cases they lead the

idea that sexual orientation does not have a connection with genetic sex. An example a study

gives is In some cases, these early endocrine disruptions lead to a complete sex reversal, so

that, postnatally, subjects are raised assuming a sex (gender) that is opposite to their genetic sex.

For example XY subjects with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome are born with female

genitalia and are typically raised as girls at least until puberty, when the absence of menstruation

leads to medical examination and diagnosis. These subjects usually have a female gender identity

and a female-typical sexual orientation (they are sexually attracted to men) (Wisniewski et al.,

2000, p. 26642669). Concepts like this confuse the whole stimulation of prenatal hormones

having any kind of epigenetic changes to the fetus. Now studies are fluctuating back and forth to

whether it can be exposure to certain hormones, sex development disorder, or now androgen

insensitivity syndrome. This controversy does not have a early take on whether their is hardcore

evidence of if there is another solution to sexual orientation or behavior. Its easy to veer off into

several directions on this topic but with this topic gathering results is hard to do because

physicians and clinicians don't have a clear thought of how these ideas can be truly affecting the
fetus especially with sex steroids and things like the mother simply stressing too much during her

pregnancy.

Some Advantages of this kind of study is that parents can take the information and

interpret it into ways that hey can prevent any kind of disfunction. Example are like elevated

levels of one hormone or their baby being exposed too much to androgens, also the disorders

associated with this research. Disadvantages of this research is that one its not constant at all.

There is always another concept that does not match or connect in some form with the previous.

The current only way to test out these theories are on animals and their offspring. To some extent

and how they are testing these animals can be considered harmful to these animals in some cases.

The information that these physicians and clinicians are presenting through trials are filled with

lots of uncertainty and unlikely statistics. Most information just doesnt make sense at all like

how stress can work its way into changing someones sexual orientation and behavior. We all

know that stress mainly can harm or kill the fetus before it would ever get the chance to change

ones sex influences and behavior.

As a future physician I would want this information to be present to my pregnant patients

so they can not only just be limited to the standard effects and harmful implications that

Obstetrician-Gynecologist tell them. As a future physician I would make it a mission to broaden

those standards and inform them of these theories to the best logical understanding of the general

concept that there has been a few cases of exposure to certain hormones and that there are

disorders that can affect the child while in the womb. This important to know because there are

many factors in this that can affect a child from birth through adulthood.
 My conclusion to this topic is that it is an important topic but its not very clear and easy

interpet the many concepts.I believe that there needs to be better trials and discussions on this

topic. Physicians and clinicians need to find a concrete cause that gives good results and better

statistics to back it up and stick with it. Also the theories of this should be spoken of more since

it is somewhat of an issue that transpires into bigger controversy in the world that harmful of

these adults and children that cant help how they feel or think because they were literally born

that way.
 References

Can Hormones Affect Sexual Orientation? - Born Gay? - ProCon.org. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://borngay.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000020

Homosexuality May Start in the Womb | Science | AAAS. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2012/12/homosexuality-may-start-womb

Minireview: Hormones and Human Sexual Orientation. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3138231/#B48

New, MD, M. I. (1998). DIAGNOSIS AND MANAGEMENT OF CONGENITAL ADRENAL

HYPERPLASIA. Annual Review of Medicine, 49(1), 311-328.

doi:10.1146/annurev.med.49.1.311

PHOENIX, C. H., GOY, R. W., GERALL, A. A., & YOUNG, W. C. (1959). ORGANIZING ACTION

OF PRENATALLY ADMINISTERED TESTOSTERONE PROPIONATE ON THE TISSUES

MEDIATING MATING BEHAVIOR IN THE FEMALE GUINEA PIG1. Endocrinology, 65(3),

369-382. doi:10.1210/endo-65-3-369

Prenatal endocrine influences on sexual orientation and on sexually differentiated childhood behavior.

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3296090/#R110

Prenatal hormones and sexual orientation - Wikipedia. (n.d.). Retrieved May 20, 2017, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prenatal_hormones_and_sexual_orientation

Wisniewski, A. B., Migeon, C. J., Meyer-Bahlburg, H. F., Gearhart, J. P., Berkovitz, G. D., Brown, T. R.,

& Money, J. (2000). Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome: Long-Term Medical, Surgical,
and Psychosexual Outcome1. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 85(8),

2664-2669. doi:10.1210/jcem.85.8.67