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RETURN TO THE WORLD SCIENCE HOME PAGE Mom’s pills might turn daughters into lesbians, study suggests Scientists say more research needed Posted Dec. 14, 2004 Researchers
said the findings are very preliminary and need confirmation. But if borne out,
they could put a new perspective on the hotly debated causes of
homosexuality. The
researchers, Lee Ellis and Jill Hellberg of Minot State University, North
Dakota, questioned more than 5,000 U.S. and Canadian women in an effort to
determine the effects of drugs they had taken during pregnancy. They found
certain types of pills were associated with a much higher rate of lesbianism
among the women’s daughters – though not with similarly raised rates of
homosexuality among their sons. The
pills statistically associated with lesbianism included amphetamine-based diet
pills and synthetic thyroid medications, primarily Synthroid and Thyroxine, used
to treat disorders of the thyroid gland. Mothers
who had taken the diet pills were eight times more likely than other mothers to
have homosexual daughters, whereas those who had taken the thyroid pills were
five times more likely, the researchers found. The
study also found a third type of drug statistically associated with lesbianism
in the daughters: DES, a drug prescribed to millions of pregnant women between
the 1940s and the early 1970s, especially for those with histories of
miscarriages. DES later fell out of use after research linked it with
reproductive system cancers among daughters and sons. According
to the researchers, the findings provide partial support for a theory on the
causes of homosexuality that has gained increasing currency among scientists in
the past several years, the neurohormonal theory. This theory, of which Ellis
was one of the original proponents, claims a person’s sexual preference is
influenced by the levels of sex hormones to which he or she is exposed in the
fetus. But
Ellis and Hellman acknowledged the findings weren’t completely in line with
that theory. The two types of drugs which they found were most strongly
associated with daughters’ same-sex attraction – the diet and thyroid pills
– aren’t known to affect sex hormone levels. Rather, they affect the immune
system. The
neurohormonal theory also says immune system factors can affect sexual
preference; the placenta, a structure which supports the developing fetus, is
highly immunologically active. But this is a less central aspect of the theory
than its assertions dealing with sex hormones. “Overall,
it may be hypothesized that drugs affecting the immune system that are being
consumed by the mother during pregnancy could alter brain development of the
fetus in ways that affect later preferences for sex partners,” wrote Ellis and
Hellman in a paper on their findings, to be published in the January issue of
the research journal Personality and Individual Differences. * * * Send us a comment on this story PAST COMMENTS This is an offensive story with about a study based on obviously flawed methodology. And your study attributes cause and effect which I'm sure even the researchers were not willing to do. Your
giving the study publicity in this way will no doubt result in more homophobes
passing it on as fact to the conservative hatemongers who have received support
from the Bush election. The
research by Lee Ellis and Jill Hellberg is just the kind of work that needs to
be done. That homosexuality in females may be linked to the drugs the mother
takes during pregnancy is a potential breakthrough in understanding the causes
of homosexuality. This kind of research might begin to give us some
insights into how homosexuality occurs, as opposed to all the speculation that
goes on regarding the controversial topic of homosexuality. Excellent
research like this can help advance understanding of an important and
controversial topic. -- Russell Eisenman, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Texas-Pan American, Dec. 14, 2004
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