UPDATE TO ANTI-LESBIAN DRUG? 7/6/10 by Margie Nichols

     By coincidence, as the news about a drug that can 'de-masculinize' female fetuses hit the blogs, one of my sex therapy listserves began a fascinating discourse about the prevalence of PCOS in female to male transgender people.  Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is a genetically transmitted syndrome with some potentially distressing symptoms and consequences.  However, in the population of young women presenting themselves for hormone treatment to transition from a female to a male body, PCOS is relatively prevalent.

     Since PCOS is a syndrome caused by an excess of androgens - male hormones - in biological female, this again raises the issue of hormones in both gender identity and sexual orientation.  Certainly hormones could not be the sole factor determining these complex psycho-social phenomenon, but it looks like they may play a role and that the two- gender and orientation - are at least partially intertwined.