Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Hormone Plasticity and The Genetics of Sexuality

More research asserting that homosexuality, all forms of sexuality are genetic--even though, in women, it can get expressed "much later" in life. Since the vast majority of people are genetically encoded to be heterosexual, does that mean that homosexuality is a genetic defect? Well, it's "evolutionarily maladaptive" for the obvious reason: gay men have 1/5 as many children, therefore, the "gay gene" if there is only one, doesn't get passed down.

It's not just genetic, though. There seems to be a intrauterine environment with lower testosterone that creates homosexual boys:

The finding suggests that male homosexuality in these cases is caused by some event in the womb, such as “a maternal immune response to succeeding male pregnancies,” Dr. Bogaert wrote last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Antimale antibodies could perhaps interfere with the usual masculinization of the brain that occurs before birth, though no such antibodies have yet been detected.

Wouldn't it be fascinating if it was found that the mother's view of boys would affect her intrauterine environment? How many women do you know who had two or three boys and dreaded another boy while simultaneously desiring a little girl--what if her body tried to create a girl even though the gentics lean toward a boy? Emotions are physiology afterall. Anger increases blood pressure, increases stress hormones, etc. What does the body do when a woman who deeply desires a girl and doesn't want another boy, or, doesn't want a boy, period?

Perhaps the homosexual firstborn boys could be explained by a mom who never wanted a boy to begin with. I remember reading somewhere that Elton John was "the little girl his mother always wanted".

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