Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T09:09:25.425Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sexual Activity and Urinary Steroids in Man with special reference to Male Homosexuality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Kenneth Dewhurst
Kenneth Dewhurst*
Affiliation:
Research Psychiatrist, Littlemore Hospital, Oxford
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In his Upjohn lecture Professor G. W. Harris (1964) reviewed experiments on the effects of gonadal hormones on the sexual behaviour of animals. He compared sexual behaviour patterns of male rats castrated on the first day of life with those of adult castrates. When fully grown, these day-old castrates were either primed with oestrogen and progesterone and tested for female mating behaviour, or they were given testosterone and tested for male behaviour with receptive females. Thus, Harris was able to demonstrate bisexual behaviour (mediated through hypothalamic-pituitary pathways) with female type activity cycles occurring in male rats. These experiments suggest that gonadal hormones exert a dual effect. During the early phase of development they act inductively, and later in the adult they exert an excitatory action on the central nervous system.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 115 , Issue 529 , December 1969 , pp. 1413 - 1415
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1969 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Exley, D. (1969). Personal communication.Google Scholar
Exley, D. and Corker, C. S. (1965). ‘A specific method for the determining of millimicrogram amounts of urinary oestrone.’ Biochem. J., 96, 818–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Exley, D. and Corker, C. S. (1966). ‘The human male cycle of urinary oestrone and 17-oxosteroids.’ J. Endocrinol., 35, 83–99.Google Scholar
Harris, G. W. (1964). ‘Sex hormone, Brain development and brain function.’ Upjohn Lecture of Endocrine Society. Endocrinol., 75, 627–48.Google Scholar
Harris, G. W., Michael, R. P., and Scott, P. P. (1958). ‘neurologic site of action of stilboestrol in eliciting sexual behaviour.’ Ciba Found. Sympos. Neurological Basis of Behaviour. Boston. Little Brown & Go. Google Scholar
Heller, C. G., and Maddock, W. O. (1947). ‘The clinical uses of testosterone in the male.’ Vitamins and Hormones, 5, ed. Harries, R. S. and Thimann, K. V. Academic Press, N.Y. Google Scholar
Ismail, A. A. A., Harkness, R. A., Kirkham, K. E., Lorraine, J. A., Whatmore, P. B., and Brittain, R. P. (1968). ‘Effect of abnormal sex-chromosome complements on urinary testosterone levels.’ Lancet, ii, 220–2.Google Scholar
Lief, H. I., Dingman, J. D. F., and Bishop, M. P. (1962). ‘Psychoendocrinologic studies in a male with cyclic changes in sexuality.’ Psychosomat. Med., 24, 357–68.Google Scholar
Money, J. (1961). ‘Components of eroticism in man.’. J. nerv. meni. dis., 132, 239–48 and 289–97.Google ScholarPubMed
Neustadt, R., and Myerson, A. (1940). ‘Quantitative sex hormone studies in homosexuality, childhood and various neuropsychiatric disturbances.’ Amer. J. Psychiat., 97, 524–51.Google Scholar
Perloff, W. H. (1963). ‘The role of hormones in homosexuality.’ J. Albert Einstein med. Cent., 11, 165–78.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.