Source: "Society spurs teen sex more than hormones - study," Reuters, July 21, 1998.
The
surge of hormones that turns adolescents into young men and women may
not be as important in determining teen sexual behavior as many people
believe.
A
four year study by medical researchers at Penn State College of
Medicine found that extra doses of the male hormone testosterone and
the female hormone estrogen had little or no effect on adolescent
behavior when given to teens suffering from delayed puberty.
"This
data certainly disagrees with the common perception of millions of
parents over the years. To say that behaviors of adolescents are being
mediated simply by increasing hormone levels is not correct," said Dr.
Howard Kulin, a pediatrician who led the study. "There may be small sex
hormone effects, but we know that social factors such as peer pressure
probably have a much larger impact."
In the first study of its
kind to measure the effects of hormones on adolescent sexual behavior,
Kulin's team treated 55 adolescents ranging in age from 13 to 18
alternating three-month doses of sex hormones with three-month doses of
placebos.
The treatment programs lasted 21 months. Researchers
saw no rise in the frequency of significant sexual behavior during
hormone-dose periods. The study results were published in the Journal
of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism in July, 1998.
