ORGANIZING EFFECTS OF SEX HORMONES

Occur at sensitive periods of development ( a lot of organizing effects happen before birth but there’s other
organizing effects that happen at puberty in humans. That period of adolescence, the teenage brain is really powerful
time period)

(These organizing effects) Determine whether the brain and body will develop male or female characteristics.
(Whereas in contrast, the activating effects of sex hormones, :

( think of them like the builders. They are the organizer, they happen early in life or at the critical time period of the
teenage brain and they set things up. It is not gong to change much

ACTIVAT ING EFFECTS OF SEX HORMONES

- Occur at any time of life and temporarily activate a particular response

- Examples pregnancy, menstruation

--- >Testosterone has a major role in sex drive. Also it has a major role in aggression. So there’s another activating
effect that u can think of

--- > heard that u have diff sex drives at diff ages, what about that? When males are younger they seem to have a
higher sex drive and as they age it kind of decreases whereas women tend to have diff sex drive when they are
younger than when they are older. This may be the effects of sex hormones.

--- > Your behaviors can influence the hormones and their activating effects. Your environment can change the
activating effects of sex hormones.

( going to happen later in life. They are activating active and they can change a lot

Distinction between the activating and organizing effects of hormone is not absolute

- Hormones early in life can exert temporary effects

- During puberty, hormones con also induce long-lasting structural changes

GENES AND SEX DIFFERENCES

- Males and Females all start with the capacity to either be differentiated into males or females.

- XX chromosome can develop male genitalia and masculine features and an XY chromosomes given the right
circumstances can develop female characteristics and female genitalia.

- Our sexual differentiation depends mostly on the level of testosterone during the first trimester for our genitals. for
the second trimester they found seems to be related to the hypothalamus and other brain areas. Then the third
trimester these hormones seem to be more involved in male and female differences in the cortex portion of the brain

- The human sensitive period for genital formation occurs during the first trimester of pregnancy

Q: u r trying to figure out sexuality and wondered how do males feel during sex versus how do females feel during
sex. Are our experiences similar? Different?

- basically the same exact tissue is differentiated into either male or female genitals. Example, the head of the man’s
penis is the same tissue as a woman’s clitoris and tho clitoris is less than an inch but it is the same amount of
sensory receptors in there

- penis and the clitoris is the same organ and that the outer labia are the same as the scrotum. We all start out the
same way and we have to understand that the body can make an error.

- If the baby is a boy, a gene on the Y chromosome causes the gonads to develop into testes. If there’s no y
chromosome, the gonads develop into ovaries. But the remaining steps are driven primarily by the embryos sex
hormones not its chromosomes. At about nine weeks, a male fetus begins to produce testosterone which
masculinizes the body. Without testosterone, the genitalia maintain their feminine appearance. But there are
variations at every step along the way and some children are born with mixed sexual characteristics in what is called
an Intersexual birth.

- The female baby has more male hormones than she should have and suddenly her sexual organs develop more
masculine and they can look slight enlargement of the clitoris or clitoris that looks like a penis