Among non-human mammals, exposure to androgens durg cril perds of velopment leads to gynephilia (attractn to femal), whereas the absence or low levels of prenatal androgens leads to androphilia (attractn to mal). However, humans, retrospective markers of prenatal androgens have only been associated wh gynephilia among women, but not wh androphilia among men. Here, we asked whether an direct ditn of prenatal androgen exposure, 2D:4D, differs between subsets of gay men leated by anal sex role (ASR). ASR was ed as a proxy for subgroups bee ASR groups tend to differ other measur affected by bra sexual differentiatn, such as genr nformy. First, we replited the fdg that gay men wh a receptive ASR preference (bottoms) report greater genr nonnformy (GNC) pared to gay men wh an sertive ASR preference (tops). We then found that Tops have a lower (male-typil) average right-hand dig rat than Bottoms, and that among all gay men the right-hand 2D:4D rrelated wh GNC, ditg that a higher (female-typil) 2D:4D is associated wh creased GNC. Differenc were found between non-exclive and exclive same-sex attractn and GNC, and ASR group differenc on dig rats do not reach signifince when all non-heterosexual men are clud the analys, suggtg greater heterogeney the velopment of non-exclive same-sex sexual orientatns. Overall, rults support a role for prenatal androgens, as approximated by dig rats, fluencg the sexual orientatn and GNC of a subset of gay men.
Contents:
- DO GAY MEN HAVE LOWER TTOSTERONE?
- DIFFERENC DIG RATS BETWEEN GAY MEN WHO PREFER RECEPTIVE VERS SERTIVE SEX ROL DITE A ROLE FOR PRENATAL ANDROGEN
DO GAY MEN HAVE LOWER TTOSTERONE?
Louis have found that young men who are pre domantly or exclively homosexual generally have lower levels of the male sex hormone ttosterone their blood than do young hetero sexual scientists said uld not be termed om the fdgs whether the hormone differenc were a e or an effect of, they agreed, the fdg adds strong new evince to small but growg body of re cent rearch challengg the tradnal view that sexual orientatn is a purely social and psychologil recent improvements bchemil assay methods, re peated attempts to fd phys logil differenc between heterosexuals and homosexuals failed. Comparison of SamplgsThe fdgs are based on sample of 30 male homosexual llege stunts who were terviewed and classified ac rdg to a standard sle of the gree of homosexualy vised years ago by a pneer sex rearcher, Aled Ksey. They were pared wh fd gs a group of 50 hetero sexual mal of the same homosexuals were rated acrdg to the followg five‐ group Ksey sle system:¶Predomantly heterosexual but more than Incintally homosexual¶Equally hetero‐ and homo sexual¶Predomantly homosexual but more than cintally heterosexual¶Predomantiy homosexual but only cintally hetero sexual¶Exclively average ncentratn of ttosterone i the blood of the heterosexuals was found to be 689‐billnth of a gram per 100 cubic centimeters of parison, men who were judged to have been ex clively homosexual through out their liv had an average of about 40 per cent as much ttosterone their blood.
DIFFERENC DIG RATS BETWEEN GAY MEN WHO PREFER RECEPTIVE VERS SERTIVE SEX ROL DITE A ROLE FOR PRENATAL ANDROGEN
Men who were predomantly homosexual but who had ci ntal heterosexual experienc had hormone levels about 54 per cent of the heterosexual Kolodny said the dif ferenc were large enough to be statistilly signifint. A number of the homosex uals whose sex liv were ls nsistently„ homosexual had slightly lower than normal t tosterone levels but the differ enc were not large enough to be signifint.
The groups clud men who, though pre domantly homosexual, had some ntug heterosexual relatns and men whose orien tatn was equally strong both of the 15 homosexuals the two most extreme groups also had below‐normal sperm unts. It may be, they said that homosexual behavr some way chang hormone also noted that past attempts to “cure” homosexu aly by admisterg ttos terone had only creased the sex drive of the patient, not changed s directn.