Superior performance by women on a task requiring object location memory has challenged the traditional view that men excel on all spatial tasks. Sexual orientation is also associated with variation in cognitive ability pattern, but such association appears to be more consistent for a real-world targetting task than for paper-and-pencil spatial tests. Finally, there is increasing evidence that ...

Existing correlative evidence suggests that sex hormones may affect economic behavior such as risk taking and reciprocal fairness. To test this hypothesis we conducted a double-blind randomized study. Two-hundred healthy postmenopausal women aged 50-65 years were randomly allocated to 4 weeks of treatment with estrogen, testosterone, or placebo. At the end of the treatment period, the subjects ...

The mechanisms by which male sex hormones modulate cardiovascular function are a subject of contemporary interest. Several lines of evidence indicate that androgens can exert acute vasorelaxing effects. On the other hand, chronic exposure to androgens has been shown to promote increases in blood pressure and compromise renal function. In the present issue of Clinical Science, Malkin and co-work...

The contraceptive pill has given way to a multitude of products, kinds of packaging, and modes of administration. This article draws on work on the pharmaceutical copy, extending the analysis to differentiating between forms of administration for contraceptive medicines as well as between brand-name drugs, generics, and similares, as they are known in Brazil. It explores how Brazilian prescribe...

Prenatal exposure to testosterone is thought to promote the development of the right-hemisphere and increase the incidence of sinistrality. A direct test of this hypothesis has previously been problematic because of the difficulty of indirectly assessing prenatal sex steroid exposure. Evidence now suggests that the ratio between the length of the second and fourth digits (2D:4D) is related to p...

BACKGROUND Menopause is an important milestone of a woman's reproductive life. There is limited data on the secular trend of menopausal age. The purpose of this study is to identify the secular trend of menopausal age and its related factors among Tehrani women born during 1930 - 1960. METHODS A total number of 2266 women, born between 1930 and 1960, were recruited among TLGS participants. Th...

Puberty is advanced by sex hormones, yet it is not clear how it is best measured. The interrelation of multiple indices of puberty was examined, including the Pubertal Development Scale (PDS), a picture-based interview about puberty (PBIP), and a physical exam. These physical pubertal measures were then associated with basal hormones responsible for advancing puberty. Participants included 160 ...

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