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The human Y chromosome showing the SRY gene which codes for a protein regulating sexual differentiation. Sexual differentiation in humans is the process of development of sex differences in humans. It is defined as the development of phenotypic structures consequent to the action of hormones produced following gonadal determination. [1]
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.
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.
5α-reductase deficiency (5-ARD) – an autosomal recessive condition caused by a mutation of the 5-alpha reductase type 2 gene. It only affects people with Y chromosomes, namely genetic males. People with this condition are fertile, with the ability to father children, but may be raised as females due to ambiguous or feminized genitalia. [18] [19]
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 Tanner scale (also known as the Tanner stages or sexual maturity rating (SMR)) is a scale of physical development as pre-pubescent children transition into adolescence, and then adulthood. The scale defines physical measurements of development based on external primary and secondary sex characteristics , such as the size of the breasts ...
Hormones significantly affect human brain formation, and also brain development at puberty. A 2004 review in Nature Reviews Neuroscience observed that "because it is easier to manipulate hormone levels than the expression of sex chromosome genes, the effects of hormones have been studied much more extensively, and are much better understood ...
[20] [21] Puberty which starts earlier than usual is known as precocious puberty, and puberty which starts later than usual is known as delayed puberty. Notable among the morphologic changes in size, shape, composition, and functioning of the pubertal body, is the development of secondary sex characteristics , the "filling in" of the child's ...