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Sex differences in human physiology are distinctions of physiological characteristics associated with either male or female humans. These differences are caused by the effects of the different sex chromosome complement in males and females, and differential exposure to gonadal sex hormones during development.
As puberty begins and sex hormone levels rise, differences appear, though some changes are similar in males and females. Male levels of testosterone directly induce the growth of the genitals, and indirectly (via dihydrotestosterone (DHT)) the prostate. Estradiol and other hormones cause breasts to develop in females.
In both males and females, the sex organs consist of two structures: the internal genitalia and the external genitalia. In males, the gonads are the testicles and in females, they are the ovaries . These are the organs that produce gametes (egg and sperm), the reproductive cells that will eventually meet to form the fertilized egg ( zygote ).
Puberty is the process of physical changes through which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction.It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads: the ovaries in a female, the testicles in a male.
In humans, sex organs or primary sexual characteristics, which are those a person is born with, can be distinguished from secondary sex characteristics, which develop later in life, usually during puberty. The development of both is controlled by sex hormones produced by the body after the initial fetal stage where the presence or absence of ...
Sexual differentiation is the process of development of the sex differences between males and females from an undifferentiated zygote. [1] [2] Sex determination is often distinct from sex differentiation; sex determination is the designation for the development stage towards either male or female, while sex differentiation is the pathway towards the development of the phenotype.
The activation of the HPG axis in both males and females during puberty also causes individuals to acquire secondary sex characteristics. This process, known as gonadarche, is preceded by adrenarche, the maturation of the adrenal glands, which contributes to the production of androgens responsible for some pubertal changes.
Gender dysphoria: The DSM-5 included a change from using gender identity disorder to gender dysphoria. This revised code now specifically includes intersex people who do not identify with their sex assigned at birth and experience clinically significant distress or impairment, using the language of disorders of sex development .