Cover; Contents; Introduction: Why This Book?; 1. Sexuality 101: The Basics; 2. Sexuality and Sexual Orientation: Learning or Biology?; 3. The Hormonal Control of Sexual Behavior; 4. Biological Determinism of Sexual Orientation in Animals; 5. Gender Differences in Humans; 6. The Effects of Sex Steroids in Humans: Organizing Effects; 7. The Effects of Sex Steroids in Humans: Activating Effects; 8. Sex Differences Suggest Homosexuality Is an Endocrine Phenomenon; 9. Sexual Orientation in Clinical Cases; 10. A Genetic or Immunological Mechanism Underlying Homosexuality?; 11. General Conclusions
Summary
In this fascinating book, Jacques Balthazart presents a simple description of the biological mechanisms that are involved in the determination of sexual orientation in animals and also presumably in humans. Using scientific studies published over the last few decades, he argues that sexual orientation, both homosexual and heterosexual, is under the control of embryonic endocrine and genetic phenomena in which there is little room for individual choice. The author begins with animal studies of the hormonal and neural mechanisms that control the so-called instinctive behaviors and analyzes how t
