Carole Hooven, Ph.D.

Testosterone is a steroid.

Estrogen is a steroid.

And steroids, this is the way that they typically act, is by either inhibiting but generally upregulating androgenic genes.

So, yeah, I think that's super interesting.

And of course, there's a disorder, 5-alpha reductase deficiency, where individuals are

basically just typical males, but they happen not to be able to produce DHT.

We can talk about this later, but it seems not to have any.

DHT is not what masculinizes the brain, but it does masculinize external genitalia.

So without that, you're going to have what look like female genitalia in a male who's otherwise typical male because the testosterone works and the androgen receptors are present.

I used to teach a lot about these cases because, yes, they really help to understand the typical pathway, but also how powerful even tiny little mutations in little genes, how powerful those mutations can be.

And I think it increases compassion when we understand what the pathway is that leads to these differences or disorders.

It depends where they're born, if they're born, and this will become relevant if we talk about this later in terms of sports.

If they're born in places without a sort of modern medical care, often they are sexed as female.

But I think it becomes apparent pretty quickly in childhood that they're actually male.

Yeah, we should probably talk about that later.

But the body will look male once puberty hits.

But there is a lack of facial hair and other body hair.

No, no, no.

They're fully male.

No testes, no ovaries?