Medical treatment carries possible side effect of limiting homosexuality

[knight_shadow]

A prenatal pill for congenital adrenal hyperplasia to prevent ambiguous genitalia may reduce the chance that a female with the disorder will be gay. Critics call it engineering for sexual orientation.

Each year in the United States, perhaps a few dozen pregnant women learn they are carrying a fetus at risk for a rare disorder known as congenital adrenal hyperplasia. The condition causes an accumulation of male hormones and can, in females, lead to genitals so masculinized that it can be difficult at birth to determine the baby's gender.

A hormonal treatment to prevent ambiguous genitalia can now be offered to women who may be carrying such infants. It's not without health risks, but to its critics those are of small consequence compared with this notable side effect: The treatment might reduce the likelihood that a female with the condition will be homosexual. Further, it seems to increase the chances that she will have what are considered more feminine behavioral traits.

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[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

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Yeah that's pretty much my response when I first saw it.

[AlphaFrog]

There is a way to present this info, and there's a way not to. Obviously, we've gone with the "not to".

I think it's great that they've potentially found a cure or treatment for a known birth defect. It's a shame that they have to go political it up with adding the homosexuality caveat.

[DaemonSeid]

What about curing pedophilia?

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

What about curing pedophilia?

I'm all for one good whack of a knife on that one, however there's this pesky "cruel and inhumane punishments" thing. Damn.

[AOII Angel]

This issue is way over exposed for being only used 100 times! My husband is a pediatric endocrinologist, the physicians who actually deal with this disorder and other medical causes of ambiguous genitalia. The media reports and stories of patients who have been unhappy with their gender assignments have been blown out of proportion. People have advocated that children not be given gender reassignment surgery until they "decide" what sex they are, but in most cases, there isn't really a choice as male genitalia is almost impossible to form surgically. Less than 1% of reassigned children report being transgendered and around 2% are lesbians. That is just above the general population averages, and considering that many of these cases are life threatening or tragic cases, the results are actually great. The physicians that treat these patients are acceptionally sensitive to LGBT concerns. My husband's mentor is an 80 year old French physician at Hopkins who specializes in these cases. The first thing he says is that you CANNOT be embarrased about sexuality. You CANNOT judge these patients about their sexual preferences. You MUST understand that with ambiguous genitalia comes hormonal differences that produce sexuality differences and transgender issues. If you have morality issues with it, leave your personal issues at the door.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

I'm all for one good whack of a knife on that one, however there's this pesky "cruel and inhumane punishments" thing. Damn.

YES!!

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

This issue is way over exposed for being only used 100 times! My husband is a pediatric endocrinologist, the physicians who actually deal with this disorder and other medical causes of ambiguous genitalia. The media reports and stories of patients who have been unhappy with their gender assignments have been blown out of proportion. People have advocated that children not be given gender reassignment surgery until they "decide" what sex they are, but in most cases, there isn't really a choice as male genitalia is almost impossible to form surgically. Less than 1% of reassigned children report being transgendered and around 2% are lesbians. That is just above the general population averages, and considering that many of these cases are life threatening or tragic cases, the results are actually great. The physicians that treat these patients are acceptionally sensitive to LGBT concerns. My husband's mentor is an 80 year old French physician at Hopkins who specializes in these cases. The first thing he says is that you CANNOT be embarrased about sexuality. You CANNOT judge these patients about their sexual preferences. You MUST understand that with ambiguous genitalia comes hormonal differences that produce sexuality differences and transgender issues. If you have morality issues with it, leave your personal issues at the door.

I like you.

Question, since I forget, Is this drug addressing just ambiguous genitalia or also addressing internal intersex-ism? (Not the right word, not about to think what I mean.) That is, are gonads/uterus etc. affected by the condition and addressed by the drug or just the development of the penis/clitoris, scrotum/labia, etc.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

I like you.

Question, since I forget, Is this drug addressing just ambiguous genitalia or also addressing internal intersex-ism? (Not the right word, not about to think what I mean.) That is, are gonads/uterus etc. affected by the condition and addressed by the drug or just the development of the penis/clitoris, scrotum/labia, etc.

It's about external genitalia. This is just about protecting female fetuses from excessive masculinization. In severe cases, the baby will have a large clitoris that will look like a small penis. The reason this is important to treat is to prevent the need for surgery. The medication doesn't treat the underlying disease process that must still be treated after birth. Male patients with this disease just have normal male external genitalia so they don't get diagnosed until they get really sick because they have low cortisol levels.

Internal genitalia is always female unless a Y chromosome is present. Males will have ovaries, too, if they have a disorder called androgen insensitivity. Basically, it's like they have an Y chromosome but their tissue doesn't recognize any of the hormones.

Interesting, eh?

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

It's about external genitalia. This is just about protecting female fetuses from excessive masculinization. In severe cases, the baby will have a large clitoris that will look like a small penis. The reason this is important to treat is to prevent the need for surgery. The medication doesn't treat the underlying disease process that must still be treated after birth. Male patients with this disease just have normal male external genitalia so they don't get diagnosed until they get really sick because they have low cortisol levels.

Internal genitalia is always female unless a Y chromosome is present. Males will have ovaries, too, if they have a disorder called androgen insensitivity. Basically, it's like they have an Y chromosome but their tissue doesn't recognize any of the hormones.

Interesting, eh?

I actually knew the later bit. Thanks though. If it's just addressing the external genitals I don't have much of a problem with it. I'm not a fan of early reassignment surgery myself.

[agzg]

The wording of "limiting homosexuality" calls to mind "a little bit pregnant."

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by agzg

The wording of "limiting homosexuality" calls to mind "a little bit pregnant."

Right?? Maybe they will get a lower Kinsey scale number after taking the pill.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

I actually knew the later bit. Thanks though. If it's just addressing the external genitals I don't have much of a problem with it. I'm not a fan of early reassignment surgery myself.

The problem with not doing early surgery is that - 1. It is harder to do the surgeries later since they are multi stage procedures and it's easier to control the children postop. 2. There is a LOT of stigma for children growing up in school with NO assigned sex. Who do they play with? What bathroom do they use? A lot of human sex characteristics are learned. Much of this is learned during very early childhood. It is next to impossible not to imprint some type of gender trait onto a child- male or female. 3. For the genetically male children that are reassigned as females, it is because there is NO WAY to form a functioning male penis. These children will not grow into adults who can have sex. The vast majority (98%) grow up to be normal, though infertile, sexually active women versus infertile non-sexually active men. This is a better option than 100% nonfunctional men or 100% ostracized children who are allowed to choose what they want to be and >50% become nonfunctional men. The 2% that are unhappy have been blown out of proportion with regard to the 98% that have been very successfully treated.