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Neuroendocrine Mechanisms and the Aetiology of Male and Female Homosexuality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Malcolm J. MacCulloch  and
John L. Waddington
Malcolm J. MacCulloch*
Affiliation:
Department of Health and Social Security (Mental Health), Alexander Fleming House, Elephant and Castle, London SE1 6BY, U.K.
John L. Waddington
Affiliation:
Division of Psychiatry, MRC Clinical Research Centre, Watford Road, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 3UJ, U.K.
*
∗ Present address: Park Lane Hospital, Liverpool, L31 1HW, U.K.
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Summary

Theories on the classification and aetiology of male homosexuality are reviewed, particularly recent hypotheses on the role of prenatal hormonal influences on brain sexual differentiation and subsequent sexual object choice in the male. Female as well as male brain sexual differentiation may be hormonally determined, and so primary homosexuality in both sexes may be due to abnormalities in foetal exposure to hormones, leading first to physical mis-differentiation and later to homosexual behaviour in genetically and phenotypically normal men and women.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 139 , Issue 4 , October 1981 , pp. 341 - 345
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1981 

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