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Biology and Sexual Minority Status

  • Chapter
The Health of Sexual Minorities

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to provide clinicians with an overview of current knowledge pertaining to the biology of sexual minority status. Under the umbrella of sexual minority are included homosexuals, bisexuals, transgenders and intersexes. The most developed biologic theory pertaining to sexual minority status is the prenatal hormonal hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, prenatal hormones act (primarily during embryonic and fetal development) to mediate the sexual differentiation not only of the internal and external genitalia but also of the brain. The sexually differentiated state of the brain then influences the subsequent expression of gender identity and sexual orientation. Intersexuality results from variation in the normative course of somatic sexual differentiation, and homosexuality and bisexuality have been proposed to reflect variant sexual differentiation of hypothetical neural substrates that mediate sexual orientation. Similarly, transgenderism has been conjectured to reflect variant differentiation of hypothetical neural substrates that mediate gender identity. Some of the same hormones and hormonal receptors mediate the sexual differentiation of both the brain and the genitalia. Thus, the brains, as well as the genitalia, of intersexes may exhibit sexual differentiation that is intermediate between that of normatively developed males and females.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York

    William Byne

  2. Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Bronx, New York, USA

    William Byne

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  1. William Byne
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10032, USA

    Ilan H. Meyer PhD  & Mary E. Northridge PhD, MPH  & 

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Byne, W. (2007). Biology and Sexual Minority Status. In: Meyer, I.H., Northridge, M.E. (eds) The Health of Sexual Minorities. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-31334-4_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-31334-4_4

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