Doctor Claims Steroid During Pregnancy Prevents Lesbianism

What would Ellen DeGeneres think? New York doctor Maria New claims she has discovered a steroid drug that can prevent lesbianism and “masculine behavior” in women if taken during pregnancy.

The doctor’s claims have been circulating on the Internet but have yet to provoke much of an outcry from the gay and lesbian community.

New, an endocrinologist, believes an overexposure to male hormones in the womb can lead to “abnormalities” such as unusually large, penis-like clitoris in addition to normal female parts.

The condition, known as “congenital adrenal hyperplasia,” or CAH, also has a connection to lesbianism, a disinterest in mothering and “masculine behavior” in girls, according to a series of scientific papers written by new and Columbia University psychologist Heino F. L. Meyter-Bahlburg.

But the steroid dexamethasone, or dex for short, is supposed to be able to prevent CAH, according to Time magazine, which broke the story.

But does this amount to chemical programming of unborn children?

New seems to suggest so, in presentation she made nine years ago, according to Time:

The challenge here is . . . to see what could be done to restore this baby to the normal female appearance which would be compatible with her parents presenting her as a girl, with her eventually becoming somebody’s wife, and having normal sexual development, and becoming a mother. And she has all the machinery for motherhood, and therefore nothing should stop that, if we can repair her surgically and help her psychologically to continue to grow and develop as a girl.

The implication is that dex will not only “cure” lesbianism, but will also foster a preference for traditional roles of wife and mother. In other words, your daughter won’t grow up to be a race car driver.

But so far, the claims have not been substantiated. One study was conducted in Sweden, but the sample of participants was too small to be statistically significant.