BECOME A MALE – TESTOSTERONE | Medsarticles. Medical Weblog

BECOME A MALE – TESTOSTERONE

The development of the foetus as a male happens because the ovum was fertilized by a Y-bearing sperm, because its gonads secreted testosterone and the female duct-inhibiting substance. But this is only part of the story of why a male becomes a male.

The physical changes in the genitals of the unborn male child, which are mediated by testosterone, may have a psychological component.

In small mammals, such as rats, monkeys, and sheep, testosterone made by the testicles of the foetus is known to modify the animal’s brain, imprinting on it a ‘maleness’ in its response to stimuli after it is born. In humans, this pre-natal brain conditioning has only a small effect, which is to modify or blur the child’s behaviour towards a male-type behaviour rather than to alter it considerably, as is the case of many other mammals.

The conditioning of the male child’s brain may enable the boy to identify more readily with his father (or some other significant male) and to model his behaviour on the way the adult male behaves. At the same time the modified brain response makes the boy treat his mother in a different, complementary way.

This means that, as far as the example of his father is concerned (or his mother’s interpretation of how a man behaves), the child responds positively by thinking, ‘This is how I am to behave’. In contrast, he responds negatively to the model of his mother by thinking, ‘This is how people of the other sex behave, and I must not imitate this behaviour but I must respond in a complementary way’.