Saturday, January 31, 2009

Pregnant women who take slimming pills 'are more likely to have gay children'


By Robert Matthews, Science Correspondent
Last Updated: 11:51PM GMT 04 Dec 2004





Women who take slimming and thyroid pills during pregnancy are substantially more likely to have homosexual children, according to research.

A study of thousands of mothers and their adult children has revealed that Thyroxine – used to treat thyroid deficiency – and amphetamine-based diet pills appear to influence sexual orientation.
Both were identified as being strongly linked to a higher rate of homosexuality among female offspring.

The mothers of homosexuals were found to be up to eight times more likely to have taken such drugs, with the effect being strongest with daughters whose mothers took the drugs during the first three months of pregnancy.
The discovery, to be published by researchers in America, backs claims that human sexuality is determined by genetic and biochemical factors at work during early pregnancy.

Prof Lee Ellis and colleagues at Minot State University, North Dakota, traced the mothers of more than 5,000 American and Canadian students and members of gay and lesbian support groups, looking for links between prescription drugs taken during pregnancy and the sexual orientation of their children.

The researchers found that the mothers of homosexual women were at least five times more likely to have taken synthetic thyroid medications during pregnancy than mothers of heterosexual women, and eight times more likely to have used amphetamine-based diet pills such as Dexedrine and diethylpropion.

They also found evidence that some drugs have the opposite effect during pregnancy, reducing the probability of homosexual offspring.
Mothers of heterosexual males were 70 per cent more likely to have taken drugs to combat nausea than those of male homosexuals.

The results suggest that the effect of the drugs is strongest with female babies and when taken during the first three months of pregnancy, which accords with previous studies showing that sexual orientation is decided during this period.
The results will appear in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

Prof Ellis and his colleagues state: "These analyses support the conclusion that female offspring are more vulnerable to alterations in sexual orientation via exposure to a variety of prescription drugs, and suggest that this vulnerability is greatest during the first trimester."
The researchers emphasise that the numbers taking the drugs were small and that a larger study should be undertaken.

Nevertheless, they conclude: "Mothers of the female homosexuals were significantly more likely than mothers of female heterosexuals to have taken diet pills and thyroid medications during pregnancy."

Dr Glenn Wilson of the Institute of Psychiatry, London, and author of a forthcoming book on the origins of homosexuality, said: "These types of medication could have an effect on brain chemistry and research suggests that this is a major factor in determining sexual orientation."

Prof Jim Dornan, the vice-president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said that the findings were in line with others pointing to the importance of pre-natal factors in adult life.
"We know that nutrients during pregnancy can affect health in later life.
This is a very interesting finding and definitely deserves further study."

The finding adds to mounting concern over the use of slimming pills by women trying to lose weight.
Prof Dornan said: "All drugs can cross the placental barrier and, looking back, we weren't so aware of what was going on inside the womb.
Nowadays, the Royal College's view is that women should not take drugs unless there is a clinical need."

Click Here to find this article.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ok, so if we want abortion as 'choice', then for the first 9 months of pregnancy, there's only a blob of non-human tissue in there, transforming miraculously into a baby only after birth. If we want to explain homosexuality as being something more than 'choice', then even in those first 3 months, there is actually a real human baby with an actual brain and brain chemicals and sexual orientation. Hmmm, what are the experts and intellectuals missing that I find so obvious...?

Sir Galen of Bristol said...

I have to wonder what the drug makers' legal liability for homosexual children might be.

Anonymous said...

Janet, you highlight the backward thinking of those who support abortion.

Paul, you raise an interesting question here. There are some who would say that same sex attraction is not a disorder and therefore no compenasation would be necessary.

Anonymous said...

I wonder what this makes of the "homosexuality" is a choice argument.

If medicine is a factor, then we may have a problem with the "choice" stance.

Anonymous said...

I think the pills cause some people to experience a same sex attraction. This is not a choice, its just something people have to deal with. The problem occurs when same sex attracted people pursue sexual relationships with each other. This is a choice.

Anonymous said...

The only references I could find to this theory on the net are dated December 2004. Is there anything more recent, or any corroborating studies?

Gina said...

I am not sure if they have done any further research on the matter.