ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the question of whether gonadal hormones exert similar influences on human neurobehavioral development. It evaluates the possibility of similar organizational influences on human behavior. The chapter also focuses on behavioral outcomes development in sex-atypical hormone environments. There is growing evidence that the early hormone environment contributes to the development of core gender identity and its disorders. The chapter discusses XX patients treated for congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) beginning early in life. The small number of studies examining sexual orientation in CAH patients who were not treated until relatively late in life will be excluded, to avoid the problems of interpretation associated with postnatal exposure to high levels of androgen and attendant continued physical virilization. Early reports on cognitive function in hormone-exposed patients suggested that prenatal exposure to androgenic hormones enhanced general intelligence. Data on cognitive function in patients exposed to atypical hormone environments prenatally is inconclusive.
