Diana’s Little Corner in the Nutmeg State: An Interesting Research Study

Wednesday, October 09, 2013

An Interesting Research Study

I read my Alma maters newspaper every day and today there was an article about a student’s research project that caught my eye…

Undergraduate presenting at Frontiers
The Daily Campus
By Dominica Ghanem
Published: Tuesday, October 8, 2013

A UConn undergraduate researching the effects of estrogen on male sex determination will present at Frontiers later this month.

Frontiers is a program that represents students from areas including, STEM, social sciences, humanities and the arts.

Robert Stickels, a 7th-semester molecular cell biology major, has been researching the effects of estrogen on certain proteins for two and a half years. He started his research as a 3rd-semester student and will see the project through until his graduation.

Previous research found that in a tammar wallaby, estrogen can be administered to cause a sex reversal. Since marsupials are mammals, scientists wanted to see if it would have the same effect on humans.

Even though he is researching the effects is of BPA plastics in the environment I think that this has interest for the trans-community, because there are many things that occur naturally during pregnancy that mimic estrogens. One thing that is very close to estrogen is the hormone adrenaline it is slightly different than estrogen and in studies researchers have found that prenatal stress has an effect on sexual orientation.

I also have to wonder how DES (diethylstilbestrol) exposure affected male fetuses. Back in the 40s, 50s 60s and the early 70s it was common to give expecting mother DES to prevent miscarriages, how did that affect sexual development.

1 comment:

scalesman10/10/13, 9:49 AM
I believe that there have been some studies undertaken that have shown a link between TG men and their mothers who were treated with DES or other estrogen medications during their pregnancies.
I know that my mother was on heavy doses and I have often wondered if there was a connection.

Pat
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