Adult digit ratio (2D:4D) is not related to umbilical cord androgen or estrogen concentrations, their ratios or net bioactivity

Hollier, Lauren P.; Keelan, Jeffrey A.; Jamnadass, Esha S. L.; Maybery, Murray T.; Hickey, Martha; Whitehouse, Andrew J. O.

doi:10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2014.12.011

Cited by 73 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…I reported on two studies of amniotic fluid [3,4] and four studies of umbilical cord blood [5,6,7,8]. Manning and Fink correctly pointed out that there are two additional studies relating to cord blood.…”

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Digit ratio (2D:4D) and prenatal/perinatal sex hormones: A response to Manning and Fink (2017)

Richards

2017

Early Human Development

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I published a Letter to the Editor of Early Human Development [1] to provide an overview and discussion of the literature examining digit ratio (2D:4D) in relation to sex hormone concentrations measured from amniotic fluid and umbilical cord blood in humans. My reason was that there exist a vast number of papers reporting on 2D:4D as a proxy for prenatal sex hormone exposure, yet relatively few that have established associations with hormones assayed during the prenatal/perinatal periods of development. My conclusion was that although the literature points towards a negative correlation between 2D:4D and prenatal/perinatal androgen exposure, the link remains tenuous, with most reported effects not being statistically significant. Manning and Fink [2] responded to this Letter with three main points: (1) that there are currently six (rather than four) papers relating to 2D:4D and sex hormones measured from umbilical cord blood, (2) that statistically significant correlations between 2D:4D and perinatal androgen levels in males have been reported, and (3) that examination of maternal circulating sex hormones during the first trimester may present an opportunity to better understand how early exposure to sex hormones relates to 2D:4D in humans. I would like to take the opportunity to extend my thanks to Manning and Fink for raising these important points, and to Early Human Development for inviting me to write this response.

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Digit ratio (2D:4D) and prenatal/perinatal sex hormones: A response to Manning and Fink (2017)

Richards

2017

Early Human Development

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“…females with congenital adrenal hyperplasia) [19,20]. However, limitations of these approaches have been widely documented, with reports of poor correlations between 2D : 4D and more direct measures of the prenatal hormone environment [21,22], as well as concerns about the extent to which data from clinical populations can be extrapolated to the general population.…”

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confidence: 99%

Prenatal testosterone exposure is related to sexually dimorphic facial morphology in adulthood

et al. 2015

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Prenatal testosterone may have a powerful masculinizing effect on postnatal physical characteristics. However, no study has directly tested this hypothesis. Here, we report a 20-year follow-up study that measured testosterone concentrations from the umbilical cord blood of 97 male and 86 female newborns, and procured three-dimensional facial images on these participants in adulthood (range: 21-24 years). Twenty-three Euclidean and geodesic distances were measured from the facial images and an algorithm identified a set of six distances that most effectively distinguished adult males from females. From these distances, a 'gender score' was calculated for each face, indicating the degree of masculinity or femininity. Higher cord testosterone levels were associated with masculinized facial features when males and females were analysed together (n ¼ 183; r ¼ 20.59), as well as when males (n ¼ 86; r ¼ 20.55) and females (n ¼ 97; r ¼ 20.48) were examined separately ( p-values , 0.001). The relationships remained significant and substantial after adjusting for potentially confounding variables. Adult circulating testosterone concentrations were available for males but showed no statistically significant relationship with gendered facial morphology (n ¼ 85, r ¼ 0.01, p ¼ 0.93). This study provides the first direct evidence of a link between prenatal testosterone exposure and human facial structure.

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“…The relationship between prenatal testosterone (or T/E ratio) and the digit ratio seems to be valid based on both experimental studies on laboratory animals (Zheng & Cohn, 2011) and various indirect evidence on humans (Brown et al, 2002;Galis, Ten Broek, Van Dongen, & Wijnaendts, 2010;€ Okten et al, 2002;Ventura et al, 2013). Despite this major trend, it must be clearly stated that a number of studies found null or even contradictory results of sexual differences in the digit ratio or its supposed relationships, both in humans (Apicella, Tobolsky, Marlowe, & Miller, 2016;Buck, Williams, Hughes, & Acerini, 2003;Dressler & Voracek, 2011;Hickey et al, 2010;Hollier et al, 2015;O swie R cimska et al, 2012;Putz, Gaulin, Sporter, & McBurney, 2004) and nonhuman animals (Lilley et al, 2009). Our present study showed that this might be caused partly by insufficiently assessed individual level of ontogenetic changes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overall trends vs. individual trajectories in the second‐to‐fourth digit (2D:4D) and metacarpal (2M:4M) ratios during puberty and adolescence

Králík

Ingrová

Koziel

et al. 2017

American J Phys Anthropol

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Relatively slight overall changes in digit ratio in puberty and adolescence themselves are not inconsistent with the use of the 2D:4D ratio as an indirect marker of prenatal sexual differentiation. Nevertheless, individual changes in the ratios varied substantially in this study and differed from the average trends. Future studies should focus on the nature of interindividual developmental differences in the digit and metacarpal ratios.

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Adult digit ratio (2D:4D) is not related to umbilical cord androgen or estrogen concentrations, their ratios or net bioactivity

Abstract: Our findings indicate that digit ratio is not related to fetal androgens or estrogens at late gestation.

Cited by 73 publications

References 55 publications

Digit ratio (2D:4D) and prenatal/perinatal sex hormones: A response to Manning and Fink (2017)

Digit ratio (2D:4D) and prenatal/perinatal sex hormones: A response to Manning and Fink (2017)

Prenatal testosterone exposure is related to sexually dimorphic facial morphology in adulthood

Overall trends vs. individual trajectories in the second‐to‐fourth digit (2D:4D) and metacarpal (2M:4M) ratios during puberty and adolescence

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