Adult erotosexual status and fetal hormonal masculinization and demasculinization: 46,XX congenital virilizing adrenal hyperplasia and 46,XY androgen-insensitivity syndrome compared

Money, John; Schwartz, Mark F.; Lewis, Viola G.

doi:10.1016/0306-4530(84)90048-9

Cited by 230 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Whether it also stimulates testicular T production is unclear since Bidlingmaier et al (1 6) were recently unable to demonstrate a 2-to 3-month peak in testicular T concentration. Some increase in T synthesis is likely due to the gonadotropin peak, but our present findings indicate that it is not reflected by the free fraction of serum T. Practically nothing is known about the physiologic role of the early postnatal testicular activity, although a role may be speculated in testicular descent, morphologic and functional sex differentiation of the central nervous system, and behavior (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24). Previous measurements of serum gonadotropins and T have implied coincidence of the maximum androgen effect with the postnatal peak of serum T at the age of 1-3 months.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 66%

Transient Increase in Postnatal Testicular Activity Is Not Revealed by Longitudinal Measurements of Salivary Testosterone

1986

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ABSTRACT. Testicular steroidogenic activity in 22 boys was monitored longitudinally over the first 6 months of life using salivary T measurements. Samples were collected biweekly. The highest T levels, 130 f 12 pmol/liter (mean f SE, n=22), were observed on days 2-10. The values then gradually declined to a mean of about 30 pmol/liter after month 4. No secondary peak in salivary T appeared, in contrast to the 1-3-month peak in serum T previously reported. The overall levels of T, reflected by the areas under the T concentration curves over the whole period, varied by a factor of three among the subjects studied. It is concluded that postnatal testicular activity may have its most marked physiologic effects immediately after birth rather than at the time of the 1-3-month peak of serum T. The pituitary-testicular axis is temporarily activated in boys 1-3 months postpartum. This has been documented by elevated levels of gonadotropins and T in single serum samples from individual boys (1-6). However, owing to the cross-sectional nature of the previous studies, the timing and duration of testicular activity in individual boys is unknown. Nor is anything known about the physiologic role of the postnatal androgen production. In anticipation of such effects it would be important to know the timing and individual variation of the overall androgen exposure ,of postnatal boys during the early months of life.The new sensitive methods for measuring steroids in saliva provide a noninvasive way of monitoring steroid hormone levels. These methods are suitable even for longitudinal observations in healthy neonates. We have therefore made a longitudinal study of salivary T levels in infant boys with the aim of elucidating the course and individual variation of testicular androgen production during the early postnatal months. Since salivary T levels reflect the circulating levels of the biologically active free (non-protein bound) fraction of T (7, 8), we actually obtained specific information about the extent of androgen exposure. This can provide

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 66%

Transient Increase in Postnatal Testicular Activity Is Not Revealed by Longitudinal Measurements of Salivary Testosterone

1986

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“…None the less, there are some examples in the human literature of possible effects of prenatal steroidal changes on sexual orientation. As mentioned earlier, women exposed to elevated androgen levels during gestation due to cpngenital adrenal hyperplasia when interviewed as young adults reported increased levels of homosexual imagery and experience compared with a set of control women (64). All patients were treated postnatally with cortisol to reduce adrenal secretion of androgens.…”

Section: Developmental Effects Of Sex Steroidsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Steroidal Control of Behavioural, Neuroendocrine and Brain Sexual Differentiation: Studies in a Carnivore, the Ferret

Baum

Carroll

Cherrv

et al. 1990

J Neuroendocrinology

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More than 30 years have passed since the publication ( I ) showing that transplacental administration of testosterone to female guinea-pigs caused permanent changes in their ability to exhibit reproductive behaviours in response to ovarian steroids in adulthood. Over the intervening years articles have appeared which have extended this type of observation to numerous other mammalian species, including rat, hamster, gerbil, mouse, dog, ferret, pig, sheep, rhesus monkey, and marmoset (2, 3). In many instances inferences have been made about the probable existence of steroid-induced changes in the structure and function of the nervous system which underlie these changes in behaviour. These so-called 'organizational' effects of perinatal steroid exposure on the developing nervous system are often distinguished from the later 'activational' effects of these same steroids on the expression of sociosexual behaviours in adulthood. The number of different mammalian species used for mechanistic studies on the organizational effects of steroids, such as determining the precise perinatal timing of hormone action, the identity of the steroid(s) responsible for behavioural sexual differentiation, and the neural sites of steroid action, has been relatively small, and generally restricted to rodents. In the late 1970's sex steroids acting during development were first implicated in the differentiation of sexually dimorphic telencephalic structures in passerine song birds which control singing associated with courtship (4, 5). Since this early work, numerous studies have exploited the canary and zebra finch to explore mechanisms of steroid action in controlling the ontogeny of song in the male and the underlying changes in the nervous system. Other studies using the rat have explored in detail the role of androgen and oestrogen in controlling the differentiation in males of patterns of reproductive behaviour (2) as well as aspects of neural sex dimorphisms in the preoptic area/anterior hypothalamus (POA/AH) (6) and in the lumbar spinal cord (7). The concentration of mechanistic (behavioural, biochemical, neuroanatomical) studies of steroidal effects on sexually dimorphic behavioural potential in a few avian and rodent species is understandable, in light of their relative availability, low expense, and rapid time-course of neural development.Despite the substantial progress already made using these lower vertebrate models in promoting our understanding of how sex steroids influence neural and behavioural development, extrapolation of the results obtained in these studies to higher mammals including man cannot occur in the absence of some degree of empirical verification. Obviously, experimental manipulations of steroidal exposure during the development of human subjects would be unethical, thus we are left with experiments of nature (e.g. congenital adreno-genital syndrome,androgen insensitivity syndrome, and Sa-reductase deficient pseudohermaphroditism; details in later sections) with which to ask questions about the role of sex...

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“…As adults, women with CAH are less likely to be exclusively heterosexual than are their unaffected sisters, controls matched for age and demographic background, or women with other disorders that cause different hormone abnormalities or abnormalities of the external genitalia (10)(11)(12). The nature of this behavioural change is not necessarily to produce a homosexual orientation.…”

Section: Studies Of Individuals With Genetic Disorders Causing Prenatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prenatal testosterone and gender-related behaviour

Hines¹

2006

eur j endocrinol

164

104

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Testosterone plays an important role in mammalian brain development. In neural regions with appropriate receptors testosterone, or its metabolites, influences patterns of cell death and survival, neural connectivity and neurochemical characterization. Consequently, testosterone exposure during critical periods of early development produces permanent behavioural changes. In humans, affected behaviours include childhood play behaviour, sexual orientation, core gender identity and other characteristics that show sex differences (i.e. differ on average between males and females). These influences have been demonstrated primarily in individuals who experienced marked prenatal hormone abnormalities and associated ambiguities of genital development (e.g. congenital adrenal hyperplasia). However, there is also evidence that testosterone works within the normal range to make some individuals within each sex more sex-typical than others. The size of testosterone-related influences, and perhaps even their existence, varies from one sex-typed characteristic to another. For instance: prenatal exposure to high levels of testosterone has a substantial influence on sex-typical play behaviour, including sex-typed toy preferences, whereas influences on core gender identify and sexual orientation are less dramatic. In addition: there appears to be little or no influence of prenatal testosterone on mental rotations ability, although mental rotations ability shows a marked sex difference. These findings have implications for basic understanding of the role of testosterone in normative gender development, as well as for the clinical management of individuals with disorders of sex development (formerly called intersex syndromes).European Journal of Endocrinology 155 S115-S121 Prenatal testosterone and gender-related behaviourThe hypothesis that levels of testosterone prenatally influence human behaviour derives from a large body of research on the neural and behavioural effects of early hormone manipulations in other mammals (1). Hundreds of studies on species ranging from rodents to non-human primates show that testosterone, and hormones produced from testosterone, play a primary role in neural and behavioural sexual differentiation, just as they do in sexual differentiation of the external genitalia. This article will begin by summarizing the findings from these experimental studies, and will then discuss evidence that hormones exert similar influences on the human brain and human behaviour. This evaluation of human relevance will focus largely on clinical studies. In addition, although any behaviour that shows a sex difference in humans might be hypothesized to be influenced by testosterone, limits on space allow treatment of only a subset of sexually differentiated behaviours here. Therefore, this article focuses on the role of testosterone in the development of childhood play behaviour, sexual orientation, core gender identity and specific visuospatial ability, mental rotations ability.

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Adult erotosexual status and fetal hormonal masculinization and demasculinization: 46,XX congenital virilizing adrenal hyperplasia and 46,XY androgen-insensitivity syndrome compared

Cited by 230 publications

References 12 publications

Transient Increase in Postnatal Testicular Activity Is Not Revealed by Longitudinal Measurements of Salivary Testosterone

Transient Increase in Postnatal Testicular Activity Is Not Revealed by Longitudinal Measurements of Salivary Testosterone

Steroidal Control of Behavioural, Neuroendocrine and Brain Sexual Differentiation: Studies in a Carnivore, the Ferret

Prenatal testosterone and gender-related behaviour

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