Prenatal Pill Could Affect Sexuality

A new pill to prevent congenital adrenal hyperplasia, a condition that can cause pregnant women to distribute an accumulation of male hormones into the infant they’re carrying—which sometimes leads to ambiguous genitalia—has a rather distinct, if not bizarre, side-effect: decreased chances of homosexuality. And—not surprisingly—GLBT-rights groups are outraged. It promotes “engineering in the womb for sexual orientation,” Alice Dreger, a professor of clinical medical humanities and bioethics at Northwestern University, told the Los Angeles Times. A rare disorder, congenital adrenal hyperplasia affects only one in 15,000 babies, but some doctors see the pill as a necessary option. “I would never recommend treatment in order to take lesbianism away if that is someone’s predisposition,” said Heino Meyer-Bahlburg, professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University. “Any treatment can be misused. That could happen here. But this is not the focus of the treatment. The focus is to make surgery unnecessary.”