Dr. Marc Breedlove

That's my impression too.

I think it's pretty clear.

I'm sure they do.

Yeah.

And I'm sure cultures can amplify or reduce that component.

The question is, to what extent?

I mean, and I don't think we know.

Yeah.

So in most of those cases, we're talking about congenital adrenal hyperplasia, also known as CAH.

And the congenital means it's present at birth.

And the adrenal hyperplasia is referring to the fact that the adrenal glands are slightly larger.

And the reason they're slightly larger in this case is because these are individuals where

the fetus itself is not able to make some of the adrenal steroids that are important for staying healthy.

And so the brain detecting, hey, where are the adrenal steroids that we need here, drives the pituitary to tell the adrenal gland, hey, we need more steroids.

The adrenal gland gets the message, it hypertrophies, but the machinery isn't there to make those steroids.

And so instead, the adrenal gland makes

testosterone and other androgens.

And actually this can happen in either XX or XY individuals.

And in XY individuals, people might not notice.

But in XX individuals, what that means is that prenatally, her genitalia are being exposed to more testosterone than is typical.