Total and free testosterone during pregnancy

Bammann, Barbara I.; Coulam, Carolyn B.; Jiang, Nai-Siang

doi:10.1016/0002-9378(80)90912-6

Cited by 110 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The hormones measured in maternal serum are produced by the mother and the placenta. Maternal androgens increase in pregnancy [138][139][140], perhaps due to increased binding by SHBG and thus higher levels of bound (but not unbound) testosterone [132,141]. Maternal testosterone does not appear to come from the fetus; several studies failed to find a difference in testosterone serum levels between women carrying a male and those carrying a female fetus [142][143][144][145].…”

Section: Interpretation Of Findings: Maternal Hormones and Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Prenatal sex hormone effects on child and adult sex-typed behavior: methods and findings

Cohen-Bendahan

Beek

Berenbaum

2005

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

491

400

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There is now good evidence that human sex-typed behavior is influenced by sex hormones that are present during prenatal development, confirming studies in other mammalian species. Most of the evidence comes from clinical populations, in which prenatal hormone exposure is atypical for a person's sex, but there is increasing evidence from the normal population for the importance of prenatal hormones. In this paper, we briefly review the evidence, focusing attention on the methods used to study behavioral effects of prenatal hormones. We discuss the promises and pitfalls of various types of studies, including those using clinical populations (concentrating on those most commonly studied, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, androgen insensitivity syndrome, ablatio penis, and cloacal exstrophy), direct measures of hormones in the general population (assayed through umbilical cord blood, amniotic fluid, and maternal serum during pregnancy), and indirect measures of hormones in the general population (inferred from intrauterine position and biomarkers such as otoacoustic emissions, finger length ratios, and dermatoglyphic asymmetries). We conclude with suggestions for interpreting and conducting studies of the behavioral effects of prenatal hormones. q

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Section: Interpretation Of Findings: Maternal Hormones and Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Prenatal sex hormone effects on child and adult sex-typed behavior: methods and findings

Cohen-Bendahan

Beek

Berenbaum

2005

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

491

400

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The maternal serum T levels differed at least 1 standard deviation in this period among male/female fetus pregnancies. Like Bammann et al (1980), they claimed that this could be due to 'a gradient from the fetal to the maternal compartment at the level of plasma unbound testosterone' (Meulenberg & Hofman, 1991, p. 53). So far, all the previously conducted studies have focused on singleton pregnancies.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal Serum Steroid Levels Are Unrelated to Fetal Sex: A Study in Twin Pregnancies

Cohen-Bendahan

Goozen

Buitelaar³

et al. 2005

twin res hum genet

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“…In the 1970s and early 1980s of the last century several investigators tried to establish a link between fetal sex and maternal T levels (Bammann et al, 1980;Dawood & Saxena, 1977;Forest et al, 1971;Glass & Klein, 1981;Klinga et al, 1978;Nagamani et al, 1979;Rivarola et al, 1968;Rodeck et al, 1985). At the time, this information was considered to be useful in the antenatal determination of fetal sex, which in turn would be a fairly inexpensive screening tool in, for example, the diagnosis of sexlinked genetic disorders (Glass & Klein, 1981).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal Serum Steroid Levels Are Unrelated to Fetal Sex: A Study in Twin Pregnancies

Cohen-Bendahan¹,

Goozen

Buitelaar

et al. 2005

Twin Res Hum Genet

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Increased prenatal exposure to testosterone (T) in females of an opposite-sex (OS) twin pair may have an effect on the development of sex-typical cognitive and behavioral patterns. The prenatal exposure to T due to hormone transfer in OS twin females may occur in two ways, one directly via the feto–fetal transfer route within the uterus, the other indirectly through maternal–fetal transfer and based in the maternal–fetal compartment. Although some studies in singletons indeed found that women pregnant with a male fetus have higher T levels during gestation than women pregnant with a female fetus, many other studies could not find any relation between the sex of the fetus and maternal serum steroid levels. Therefore at present it is unclear whether a pregnant woman bearing a male has higher levels of T than a woman bearing a female. Up to this point, no-one has investigated this issue in twin pregnancies. We examined the relationship between maternal serum steroid levels and sex of fetus in 17 female–female, 9 male–male and 29 OS twin pregnancies. No differences were observed between the maternal serum steroid levels of women expecting single-sex and mixed-sex offspring. It is concluded that the source of prenatal T exposure in females probably comes from the fetal unit, which is the direct route of fetal hormone transfer.

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Total and free testosterone during pregnancy

Cited by 110 publications

References 9 publications

Prenatal sex hormone effects on child and adult sex-typed behavior: methods and findings

Prenatal sex hormone effects on child and adult sex-typed behavior: methods and findings

Maternal Serum Steroid Levels Are Unrelated to Fetal Sex: A Study in Twin Pregnancies

Maternal Serum Steroid Levels Are Unrelated to Fetal Sex: A Study in Twin Pregnancies

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