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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]
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.
Male primary sex characteristics are the penis, the scrotum and the ability to ejaculate when matured. Female primary sex characteristics are the vulva, vagina, uterus, fallopian tubes, cervix, and the ability to give birth and menstruate when matured. [1] Hormones that express sexual differentiation in humans include: estrogens such as estradiol
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]
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.
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.
Virilization is a medical term commonly used in three medical and biology of sex contexts: prenatal biological sexual differentiation, the postnatal changes of typical chromosomal male (46, XY) puberty, and excessive androgen effects in typical chromosomal females (46, XX).
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 ...