Category: Sexology
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the hormone hustle
We’re about to embark on a time-traveling, mind-bending journey through the evolution of normalization, biopolitics, and the wild world of hormones. From Foucault’s philosophical bombshells to Nicola Pende’s hormone-fueled science experiments, this is a story that will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew about “normal.” Act I: The Birth of Biopower (18th Century) Picture…
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Beccalossi C. Sexology, sexual development, and hormone treatments in Southern Europe and Latin America, c.1920-40. Hist Human Sci. 2023 Dec;36(5):94-121. doi: 10.1177/09526951231213028. Epub 2023 Dec 6. PMID: 38077463; PMCID: PMC10700059.
AbstractDisplacing the physiological model that had held sway in 19th-century medical thinking, early 20th-century medical scientists working on hormones promoted a new understanding of the body, psychological reactions, and the sexual instinct, arguing that each were fundamentally malleable. Hormones came to be understood as the chemical messengers that regulated an individual’s growth and sexual development,…
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Beccalossi C. Italian sexology, Nicola Pende’s biotypology and hormone treatments in the 1920s. Hist Med Sante. 2017 Winter;12:73-97. doi: 10.4000/hms.1173. Epub 2018 May 28. PMID: 31501760; PMCID: PMC6733708.
AbstractThis article analyses a selection of Nicola Pende’s studies from the 1920s on ‘endocrinological abnormalities’ associated with impotence, a lack of virility in men, a lack of femininity in women, and homosexuality. By analysing endocrinological sexual theories and treatments, it aims to illustrate the ways in which hormone research pioneered an innovative approach to the…
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BECCALOSSI C. Optimizing and normalizing the population through hormone therapies in Italian science, c.1926–1950. The British Journal for the History of Science. 2020;53(1):67-88. doi:10.1017/S0007087419000906
Abstract This essay explores how hormone treatments were used to optimize and normalize individuals under Italian Fascism. It does so by taking the activities of the Biotypological Orthogenetic Institute − an Italian eugenics and endocrinological centre founded by Nicola Pende in 1926 − as the prime example of a version of eugenics, biotypology, which was…
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Average body temperature dropped every decade since the 1800s and even more every decade since 1960
Attention, fellow humans! It’s time to chill out… literally! 🧊 Our bodies are on a cosmic cooldown, and it’s not just because we’ve all become walking popsicles addicted to air conditioning. Oh no, this is far more sinister and hilarious than that! The Great American Refrigeration❄️ Since the 1800s, our core temperatures have been dropping…
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the ULTIMATE BUGGY BASS DROP
Oh snap, buckle up buttercup, ’cause we’re about to dive deep into the wildest rave this side of the exoskeleton! 🐛🎉 Imagine, if you will, a microscopic mosh pit where insects are gettin’ jiggy with it on a molecular level. It’s not your average hormone hoedown, oh no – this is the ULTIMATE BUGGY BASS…
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Sex-determining region Y protein (SRY), or testis-determining factor (TDF)
Sex-determining region Y protein (SRY), or testis-determining factor (TDF), is a DNA-binding protein (also known as gene-regulatory protein/transcription factor) encoded by the SRY gene that is responsible for the initiation of male sex determination in therian mammals (placental mammals and marsupials). SRY is an intronless sex-determining gene on the Y chromosome. Mutations in this gene lead to a range of disorders of sex development with varying effects on an individual’s phenotype and genotype. SRY is a member of the SOX (SRY-like box)…
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DAX1
DAX1 (dosage-sensitive sex reversal, adrenal hypoplasia critical region, on chromosome X, gene 1) is a nuclear receptor protein that in humans is encoded by the NR0B1 gene (nuclear receptor subfamily 0, group B, member 1). The NR0B1 gene is located on the short (p) arm of the X chromosome between bands Xp21.3 and Xp21.2, from base pair 30,082,120 to base pair 30,087,136. Function This gene encodes a protein…
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DMRT1
Doublesex and mab-3 related transcription factor 1, also known as DMRT1, is a protein which in humans is encoded by the DMRT1 gene. Function DMRT1 is a dose sensitive transcription factor protein that regulates Sertoli cells and germ cells. The DMRT1 gene is located at the end of the 9th chromosome. This gene is found in a cluster with two other members…
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Steroidogenic factor 1 (SF-1) protein and a few related things
The steroidogenic factor 1 (SF-1) protein is a transcription factor involved in sex determination by controlling the activity of genes related to the reproductive glands or gonads and adrenal glands. This protein is encoded by the NR5A1 gene, a member of the nuclear receptor subfamily, located on the long arm of chromosome 9 at position 33.3. It was originally identified as a regulator of genes encoding cytochrome P450 steroid hydroxylases, however, further roles…
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The neonatal fragment crystallizable (Fc) receptor (also FcRn, IgG receptor FcRn large subunit p51, or Brambell receptor) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the FCGRT gene
It is an IgG Fc receptor which is similar in structure to the MHC class I molecule and also associates with beta-2-microglobulin. In rodents, FcRn was originally identified as the receptor that transports maternal immunoglobulin G (IgG) from mother to neonatal offspring via mother’s milk, leading to its name as the neonatal Fc receptor. In humans, FcRn is present in the placenta where…
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Elevated alpha-fetoprotein
Elevated alpha-fetoprotein refers to a state where alpha-fetoprotein levels are outside of the reference range. There are two categories of AFP tests: tests performed on serum (blood plasma), and tests performed on amniotic fluid. Tests performed on serum are further categorized by the reason for performing the test: maternal serum, adult tumor marker, and pediatric tumor marker. Serum The standard…
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Nerve Growth Factor
Nerve growth factor (NGF) is a neurotrophic factor and neuropeptide primarily involved in the regulation of growth, maintenance, proliferation, and survival of certain target neurons. It is perhaps the prototypical growth factor, in that it was one of the first to be described. Since it was first isolated by Nobel Laureates Rita Levi-Montalcini and Stanley Cohen in 1956, numerous biological processes involving NGF have been identified,…
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Cigarette smoking significantly reduces risk of endometrial cancer especially among postmenopausal women
Cigarette smoking and the risk of endometrial cancer: a meta-analysis. Zhou B, Yang L, Sun Q, Cong R, Gu H, Tang N, Zhu H, Wang B. Cigarette smoking and the risk of endometrial cancer: a meta-analysis. Am J Med. 2008 Jun;121(6):501-508.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2008.01.044. PMID: 18501231.
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Smoking is associated with a reduced risk of hypertension during pregnancy
The puzzling association between smoking and hypertension during pregnancy Zhang J, Klebanoff MA, Levine RJ, Puri M, Moyer P. The puzzling association between smoking and hypertension during pregnancy. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 1999 Dec;181(6):1407-13. doi: 10.1016/s0002-9378(99)70384-4. PMID: 10601921.
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Evidence that cigarette smoking is associated with lower uterine leiomyomata incidence
A prospective ultrasound study of cigarette smoking and uterine leiomyomata incidence and growth Wesselink AK, Wegienka G, Coleman CM, Geller RJ, Harmon QE, Upson K, Lovett SM, Claus Henn B, Marsh EE, Noel NL, Baird DD, Wise LA. A prospective ultrasound study of cigarette smoking and uterine leiomyomata incidence and growth. Am J Obstet Gynecol.…
