| VXIII said: Studies show that the levels of testosterone in gay men are equal or even higher than heterosexual men. The levels of testosterone get higher in older women and get lower in older men. There are also some interesting experiments on male rats show that the estrogen injections don't affect the sexual orientation of male rats that haven't been castrated. That made me believe that genes and hormones levels have very little to do with our sexual orientation, in except of some very extreme cases that don't apply on the average gay man. Is it a psychological factor ?, well, Studies show that child sexual abuse is a contributing factor for homosexuality ( rates of childhood sexual abuse in gay men are approximately 3 times higher). I believe it is more of a psychological and environmental factor than genetic. Could it be a mix of all that ?, it could be. What I know is that the matter is not so clear-cut as many people of both camps would like it to be. |
Bolded: It shouldn't have made you believe that really. The studies you are talking about measure hormones effects after birth, not during fetal development in which major brain (and other organs) differentiation (shaping) occurs under the effect of the mother's + fetus' own hormones.
Also, Hormones on their own are useless, so measuring their levels sometimes don't reflect the real picture. Hormones in general get secreted and circulate the body looking for their receptors to attach to and exert their actions. So you need "Hormones+Receptors" for any effect to occur. I'll try to explain further:
For example, the pancreas secretes insulin which then attach to receptros that are present on muscles' cells facilitating glucose entry in order to keep your blood glucose levels within normal levels. There are 2 ways by which you can get diabetes (unhealthy high blood glucose levels):
1) Low insulin levels.
2)Insulin receptor defects. (that's why some diabetic patients have high insulin levels, to try to compensate for the defective receptors)
You can apply the same exact principles to all hormones, for example, imgaine gay people having diminished testosterone receptors in their brain cells, what could be the outcome? This is all just oversimplified and I am not even suggesting that my brain cells lack testosterone receptors 
, I am just trying to explain why you shouldn't rule out hormonal effects because of the studies you have mentioned.
But yeah, bottom line is the matter isn't so clear-cut. People shouldn't stress anyway unless it's for purely scientific reasons and curiosity.
