A New York doctor namedMaria Newhas been notify pregnant women to take a steroid hormone called dexamethasone to foreclose homosexuality and “ masculine behavior ” in their daughters . How did she get aside with this form of anti - gay genetic engineering ?
New is an endocrinologist who studies , among other thing , a status called congenital adrenal hyperplasia ( CAH ) . It ’s stimulate by overexposure to male endocrine in the womb , and it can result in developmental abnormality that often intend , as Time magazine puts it , “ a lifetime of taking powerful steroid medication to counterbalance for faulty adrenal glands . ” It can also do girls to be born with equivocal private parts . ( They have large button that appear penis - like , though they also have absolutely ordinary vaginal opening and wombs . )
Working with several henchman , including Columbia psychologist Heino F. L. Meyter - Bahlburg , New has written a serial of scientific papers suggesting a strong connector between CAH and sapphism . CAH , they indite , is also associated with a disinterest in mothering , as well as “ masculine behavior ” in young woman .
Enter dexamethasone , dex for myopic . It ’s a sex hormone that New and some of her co-worker trust can prevent some of the outward signs of CAH in fille – specifically , there is a minuscule amount of grounds that it can prevent equivocal genitalia . But dex has never been approved by the FDA for treating CAH in utero . New is recommending it for this off - label use based on a flyspeck study done in Sweden . According to Time :
But the study , with just 26 participants , was too small to be definitive . “ We just do n’t know what we are doing to these kids , ” says Dr. Walter Miller , the chief of endocrinology at University of California , San Francisco . “ It ’s not sufficient to say , The infant was take over and had all fingers and toes , so it ’s fine . ”
And it gets worse . The Bioethics Forumuncovered a tape of a presentationNew gave to parent 9 age ago , where she recommended dex for a lot more than correcting possible ambiguous genital organ . In the tape , New assure parent :
The challenge here is . . . to see what could be done to restore this infant to the normal female appearance which would be compatible with her parent demo her as a lady friend , with her eventually becoming somebody ’s wife , and deliver normal intimate development , and becoming a mother . And she has all the machinery for maternity , and therefore nothing should stop that , if we can remedy her surgically and help her psychologically to go on to grow and develop as a missy .
New ’s longtime collaborator Meyer - Bahlburg amplify this sentimentin a paperhe published a few years ago :
CAH women as a chemical group have a lower sake than control in getting matrimonial and do the traditional child - care / homemaker role . As children , they show an unco down in the mouth interest in engaging in maternal play with baby dolls .
This class in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences , unexampled and pediatric endocrinologist Saroj Nimkarn paint a picture dex can boil down these “ problems ” :
Gender - related behavior , namely puerility play , peer tie-up , career and leisure time clock time preferences in adolescence and adulthood , maternal quality , hostility , and sexual orientation become masculinized in 46,XX girls and woman with 21OHD deficiency [ CAH ] . These abnormality have been attributed to the effects of inordinate antenatal androgen level on the sexual differentiation of the brain and by and by on behavior . . . We anticipate that antenatal Dexone therapy will reduce the well - documented behavioural masculinization .
Note that one example of “ masculinization ” has to do with “ sexual predilection . ” But another is “ career and leisure time clip preferences . ” So dex will prevent girls from picking masculine careers and hobbies ? The message here is not just that dex can cure lesbianism , but also that it will encourage girl to desire the traditional roles of wife and female parent .
As if trying to engineer straight , “ womanly ” girlfriend was n’t problematical enough , New is further doctor to prescribe a drug that ca n’t even heal CAH . It may prevent ambiguous genitals in girls , but it does n’t help the underlying stipulation . Many of the charwoman invite dex discourse do n’t realize that the drug does n’t cure CAH , and are shocked to find out that it ’s not approve by the FDA . Time offers this story :
Jenny Westphal , 24 , who took dexamethasone throughout her pregnancy at the recommendation of another doctor , says she feels misled . . . Her daughter , now 3 , who has CAH , has also had serious and mysterious health problems since birth , include run disorders , that are not commonly link with her adrenal - gland disorder .
But New would probably count this as a triumph : Westphal ’s daughter has perfectly normal genitals . Maybe she ’ll even grow up to be a heterosexual .
Read moreat Bioethics ForumandTime mag . Hat tip toDan Savage .
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