Monday, October 22, 2012

Genetics & Prenatal Influences on Sexual Orientation

As I was reading the section on sexual orientation I was intrigued to learn more because I know many people I can relate this to, including myself. I'm sure everyone has pondered on how people can have a different sexual orientation than the majority of their peers. Is it a choice to be homosexual? What went on during our embryonic development that causes us to be so different from others? I know questions like these have crossed my mind and I was happy to run into more information that clarified some of these unanswered questions. The text gives several different aspects that could have an impact on sexual orientation, however, the two aspects that stood out to me were genetics and the prenatal influences. Is there really a genetic predisposition to homosexuality? I've always heard that stress during pregnancy is in fact a contributor to homosexuality. How true is that statement?
Studies were performed on twins to find out if there was a correlation between genetics and sexual orientation. Researchers found that if one twin was a homosexual and had an identical or monozygotic twin, there is definitely a higher concordance rate than fraternal or dizygotic twins. That seems to be valid since identical twins share the same genetic makeup and same placenta than fraternal twins. Other studies which surprised me were the findings of the men on the maternal side of the family to have a higher incidence of homosexuality than the paternal side.

I found a simple and sweet video which helps support the research conducted on genetics and homosexuality.



To answer my next question about prenatal influences on sexual orientation, the evidence to support that prenatal stress does have an effect on homosexuality in humans is not substantial. Studies have been done on rats where pregnant rats where placed in a stressful situation for a certain amount of time and indeed a male rat that was born to the stressful mother presented homosexual behavior towards other male rats.

I have provided an abstract from a scholarly article supporting the same evidence found in rats and the negative correlation between prenatal stress and homosexuality in humans.
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3 comments:

  1. UnknownOctober 23, 2012 at 8:37 AM

    This post that you did was really insightful it elaborted and went further into depth of the popular question if one twin is gay will the other twin also be gay since they have the same genes? The information you posted helped to answer this question and portray why this may happen.

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  2. Marc SalazarOctober 23, 2012 at 7:48 PM

    I was really confused about this part, I wasn't sure is one twin was gay when both where gay. but this article and your in depth look helped me understand what this study was really trying to portray. On how identical twins have a higher rate for the same sexual orientation.

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  3. UnknownOctober 23, 2012 at 7:51 PM

    Wow, I like how you explained this topic! I was too surprised when I read in our textbook that men from the maternal side have a higher chance of being homosexual. After learning about prenatal stress, I will keep this information in mind for any future mothers and myself :)

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