A journey to the sexual pole - about super-females, mini-males, and other animals

The ancient apple is saturated with sex hormones that confuse our mind, and repeat and confuse it, until sometimes it is difficult for us to distinguish between a lady and a gentleman, and it is even more difficult for us to decide which of them - if any - is more attractive to us

Hava's apple, it turns out, didn't fall far from the tree. And like apples from other stories, this Genesis apple was - and still is - poisoned. It is saturated with sex hormones that confuse our mind, and repeat and confuse it, until sometimes it is difficult for us to distinguish between a lady and a gentleman, and it is even more difficult for us to decide which of them - if any - attracts us more.

Sexual confusion may reduce sexual activity naturally, which may lead to a significant reduction in the population. Techniques of reducing sexual desire, or harming the ability of members of a certain sex to recognize members of the opposite sex, are the last word, or the future word, in what is related to the prevention of the breeding of insects and other animals harmful to agriculture. Instead of running after every insect and forcing it to swallow poison, you can impair its ability to recognize its mate. It is also possible to make him develop a basic indifference towards his natural sexual partner. The result of this manipulation, in the next generation, will be a perfect, clean and "elegant" extinction of the pests.

This idea has previously served as the basis for quite a few science-fictional speculations, according to which the great increase in the distribution of homosexual tendencies among males or females of the human race, does not stem from psychological or genetic motives. It does not at all stem from something that people think or do. This is the result of global manipulation carried out by beings from another planet, who simply destroy the "harmful" humans in this way in order to inherit their world.

The cords of extinguished passions

Now it turns out that there may be something to this claim, but the hidden pullers in the cords of the extinguished sexual desires, or in the cords that activate the homosexual tendencies, are not creatures out of this world. They are ordinary men and women, doing their jobs and running modern households. The new concept, which places this blame on the inhabitants of the industrial world, claims that males who develop female sexual tendencies, a "female" way of behaving, and build female reproductive organs in their bodies, are thus obeying an environmental hormonal imperative. According to this concept, this is an unexpected phenomenon, which probably stems from the reality of harmful substances and various artificial pollutants, in the sea, on land and in the air.

A rather long series of studies carried out in recent decades, throughout the length and breadth of the animal world, points to the possibility that certain pesticides and breakdown products of substances found in various cleaning products can function as a kind of "environmental female hormones" and affect animals and humans who come into contact with them. It is possible that these substances mimic the action of the female steroid sex hormones from the estrogen group, and cause many males to develop distinct female tendencies, and even lose sexual interest in their partners. Quite a few researchers have recently raised concerns that this phenomenon could lead to the extinction of entire populations of certain animals.

Some of the pesticides that seem to mimic the activity of estrogens are currently banned from use, but since it is a long-term environmental effect, it is still possible to notice the environmental and sexual results of their use in the past. Among these are substances such as DD-T, DD-I, Capone, Heptachlor, Dieldrin, Mirax and Toxophan. Other substances of this type are still continuously emitted into the environment. The most prominent among these are the breakdown products of detergents from the EPA family, which are included, among other things, in many cleaning liquids intended for use in dishwashers. PPI itself does not mimic estrogen, but some of its breakdown products look like they might. These substances were also found in relatively high concentrations in industrial effluents of textile factories in various places in England and the USA.

Built to connect

It seems that the way in which these substances mimic the action of natural estrogens is due to a certain partial similarity between the three-dimensional structure of their molecules and the estrogen molecules. Estrogen exerts its action on the cells of the body, when it binds to unique macromolecules, called receptors, found in certain cells of the body. When an estrogen molecule binds to the receptor, a chain process is opened leading to a change in cell behavior. Thus, the attachment of estrogen to the receptors in the cells, can lead to the production of different proteins, which may affect, stimulate and suppress different activities in the body.

It is known that in females, estrogens inhibit the escape of calcium from the bones and also play a role in preventing heart disease. On the other hand, they may stimulate the uncontrolled growth of cells, which may manifest in the development of a cancerous tumor. In this context, it is usually breast cancer, or ovarian cancer. Estrogens also play an important role in the development process of the fetus, and especially in the development process of the sex and reproductive systems. Even in the body of males there is a relatively small amount of estrogens, which are usually found in a clear minority compared to the male sex hormone testosterone. Excess or deficiency of estrogen in the body, may sometimes disrupt the balance of hormones, which may also manifest itself in behavioral phenomena.

Estrogen's ability to bind to receptors results from a structural match between them. It is a match similar to the one that exists between two matching pieces of a puzzle game, or between a key and a lock. But, as we know, sometimes you can find two different keys, the structural similarity between which allows them to open the same lock. In the same way, the XNUMXD structure of DDT, or part of it, can be similar to the XNUMXD structure of estrogen, or part of it. This structural-form similarity may allow DDT molecules to bind to receptors that are naturally designed to bind estrogen. When such an attachment takes place, it may start the chain of processes usually caused by estrogen, which will be expressed in the body's natural reaction - to estrogen. Usually, the attachment of the "real" estrogen to appropriate receptors in different cell types, opens in several processes at the same time. On the other hand, the substance that mimics estrogen, may only open one of these processes, while completely ignoring the other "functions" of estrogen. The problem is that it is very difficult, and in fact impossible to predict the way in which the substances that mimic estrogen will affect different biological systems. On the other hand, it is easier to prove their effects, after the fact.

An unborn egg

Various and independent studies carried out in recent decades show that various "estrogen-mimicking" substances may play a role in the development of cancerous diseases in the female reproductive organs, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, cervical cancer, and also affect the development processes of the genitals in males and females. Something that may affect fertility, as well as the establishment of a sexual behavior.

For example, DDT, which was previously used as a common pesticide against insects, and is known as a substance that affects the calcium exchange processes in the body, also caused a reduction in the thickness of the eggshells of various birds. As a result, some of the embryos that were in the eggs did not receive sufficient protection, and died before they hatched from the egg. In other cases, the thin shell and the presence of DDT affected the development processes of the embryos. Various studies carried out in this field suggest that this effect is one of the causes of the fact that in seagull habitats, which were contaminated with a relatively high rate of DDT, very many birds were found whose reproductive system did not function properly.

Thus, for example, in Santa Barbara in California, an area contaminated with a fairly high rate of DDT, female seagulls were observed having "lesbian sexual relations", as well as young male seagulls whose bodies were found to contain tissues that were supposedly intended to form female egg organs: ovaries and egg sacs. In the developing embryo there is the genetic load and the ability to develop both systems, male and female, of these systems, and only the other system continues to develop. This is how the species of the animal that goes out into the world is determined. It is possible that the substances that destroy estrogen disrupted this absorption process, so that in some embryos, which would normally develop into normal males, both systems continued to develop in parallel, so that when they came out into the world, they were actually bisexual to one degree or another.

Same-sex relationships

In females that appeared normal, however, double sets of oviducts were found. It seems that this phenomenon also resulted from the exposure of embryos found in the developmental stages of the sexual and reproductive systems, to an excess of estrogen-like active substances. That is, the various female characteristics intensified in both males and females. The males who developed female tissues also lost their normal sexual interest in females, and one of the results of this situation was the "lesbian sex" that the females had among themselves. Another hypothesis is that the observed sexual relations were completely natural, but that the males who took part in them developed - under the influence of exposure to estrogen-like substances - female visual characteristics.

In attempts to prove the connection between these phenomena and estrogen-killing substances such as DDT, the researchers injected DDT into seagull eggs collected in areas free of environmental pollution. The result: in the seagulls that hatched from the injected eggs, phenomena similar to those observed in the Santa Barbara seagulls were observed.

In most countries of the world, the use of DDT and its various derivatives is prohibited, regardless of the phenomena described, but quite a few researchers suspect that environmental pollutants other than estrogen are still active in the field. The main suspects in this matter are the materials from the PCB family. In an initial experiment in this area, researchers analyzed 15 male seagulls collected in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in an area near a toxic waste disposal site, which is known to dispose of relatively large amounts of PCBs. Only four of the 15 male gulls were found to be normal. In all the rest, female oviducts were found, in various degrees of development.

Seeds, eggs and crocodiles

A similar phenomenon has also been observed in alligators. In a study carried out in Florida, where alligator breeding has become a huge industry, the researchers sought to find out the environmental factors that affect the hatching rate of alligators from their eggs. They collected eggs from many lakes, and followed the development of the embryos in them, until the eggs hatched. Generally, close to 80% of the eggs collected hatched. Only among eggs collected in one lake - Lake Apopka - was the opposite phenomenon observed: about 80% of the alligator eggs collected in Apopka - did not hatch. The embryos in them died before hatching. And half of those that hatched died within about two weeks. A much greater mortality rate than that observed in the young alligators hatched from eggs collected in other lakes.

The researchers examined the proportion of the female sex hormone estrogen and the male sex hormone, testosterone, found in the hatched alligator eggs. In the eggs from which males hatched, it was expected that a higher proportion of testosterone would be found than the proportion of estrogen, and in the eggs from which females hatched, it was expected that there would be a preference for estrogen over testosterone. The researchers were amazed to discover that the alligator eggs collected in Lake Apopka did not have the hormone ratio typical of male hatched eggs. Instead, they found two groups: one that had a typical female hormone ratio, and one that displayed a ratio that matched what the researchers called "super-females."

It later turned out that from the eggs that presented a normal female hormone ratio, male alligators actually hatched, while from those that presented a "super-female" ratio, females hatched. A few months later, the researchers examined the production of hormones in the bodies of the young alligators, and got a similar result: females producing estrogen at much higher rates than usual, and males producing very low, almost zero, rates of testosterone. Later on in development, it was found that Apopka males developed female organs in their bodies like oviducts, and their male genitalia was significantly smaller: half or a third of the average size in males of the same age, collected in other lakes. On the other side of the sexual pendulum, Apopka females laid much larger than normal amounts of eggs. Their spawning tubes, one researcher said, literally belched smoke. The "maxi-females" were accompanied by "mini-males".

hormones in the environment.

The reason for this phenomenon probably lies in the fact that for years a factory for the production of various pesticides operated on the shores of Lake Apopka. In the distant past it was also used in DDT. In the more recent past, extremely large amounts of a substance called dicopol were found in it, which, according to some researchers, may imitate the female sex hormone estrogen, and bind to its corresponding receptors, which are found in the nuclei of certain cells in the bodies of various animals, including alligators. The plant was closed, regardless of the phenomena described, and became a toxic waste disposal site.

Other studies were designed to examine the proportion of the vitellogenin protein found in the blood of male turtles collected in bodies of water near toxic waste disposal sites. Vitellogenin is one of the proteins contained in the egg yolk, and therefore it is usually produced only in the body of females. The gene responsible for the production of vitellogenin is of course also found in males, but it is usually found in them in a state of "dormancy", and is not expressed, that is, it does not cause the production of the protein in the body. The vitellogenin production process usually begins when molecules of the female sex hormone estrogen bind to receptors found in the nuclei of certain cells in the liver. As a result, a chain of events opens, at the end of which the liver produces the protein, which is secreted into the bloodstream, through which it reaches the egg that is forming in the female's body. The researchers believe that the presence of vitellogenin in the blood of male turtles may indicate the activity of the female sex hormone estrogen, or exposure to an environmental pollutant that mimics the activity of estrogen. An amount of estrogen - or a substance that mimics it - that may cause the presence of a lot of vitellogenin in the blood, may also inhibit the natural activity of the testicles.

English researchers have already announced that large amounts of vitellogenin have been found in the blood of turtles and fish collected near several waste disposal sites. The data of the English studies show that in the bodies of some male fish, the amount of vitellogenin typical of females in the middle of the spawning season was found.

Conspiracy theory

The tendency to blame the phenomenon on pesticides and other toxic substances contained in cleaning agents is not necessarily justified. At least one group of researchers offers a scenario that points the finger of blame in an entirely different direction. The "culprit" according to this scenario, is none other than the substance EE which is one of the main "estrogenic" ingredients included in birth control pills. According to this hypothesis, women who take birth control pills excrete the IE in their urine, and some of this substance passes through and "survives" the sewage purification processes, and eventually reaches water bodies, where it exerts its estrogenic effect on the male fish and turtles that were studied.

In attempts to prove the feasibility of this scenario, the researchers kept fish and turtles in aquariums whose water contained IO, at a very low dilution ratio: one tenth of a nanogram of IO per liter of water. A considerable part of the male fish and turtles that were kept in these aquariums, indeed began to produce increasing amounts of vitellogenin in their bodies. If the assumption is correct that a large amount of vitellogenin may inhibit the normal activity of the testicles, then it seems that the birth control pill for the female may, under certain conditions, cause, at the same time, a certain neutralization of the male reproductive system.

These studies raised the suspicion that environmental pollutants that destroy estrogen are also responsible for some of the breeding difficulties that have plagued the "Florida Panther" in recent decades. The total population of these animals currently does not exceed a few dozen individuals, and quite a few researchers believe that the fate of the Florida panther is already sealed, and that we can only witness its disappearance from the stage of life. A survey conducted among these animals revealed that approximately 70% of the male Florida panthers were born in recent years with at least one of their testicles not functioning. Some of them also produce defective sperm cells. Blood samples taken from them showed double the normal levels of the female sex hormone estrogen. The research that can be done on these animals is very limited, both due to their small number, and due to the fact that they are protected, as animals in danger of extinction, but studies carried out in rats showed that exposure of male rats to estrogen-lowering pollutants caused them to lose interest in females and for the development of female behavioral characteristics.

wavelength

Other researchers believe that at least some of the causes of the estrogenic effects in males are the long-wave electromagnetic waves emitted, for example, from high voltage power lines. As we know, power lines that carry high voltage emit electromagnetic radiation at a very low frequency: about 60 Hz and less, and at a very long wavelength. The biological effect of this type of radiation has not yet been sufficiently studied, and no country has yet adopted binding standards in this area. Various experiments that examined these effects in a short period of time, discovered that the effect of radiation does not continuously depend on the frequency, and that there are "frequency windows" that have different biological effects. Therefore, it is difficult to predict in which frequency range the biological effect will occur.

In these short-term studies, it was found that low-frequency and low-intensity radiation (very long waves), caused in cell cultures and tissue, changes in the transcription process of DNA, the substance that stores the genetic information in the cell nucleus, as well as fluctuations in the rate of calcium exit from the brain tissue, and in the activity of the white blood cells.

These studies were carried out in the USA following a correlation found between the incidence of blood cancer in children and the distance of those children's homes from high voltage power lines. Later, studies were carried out on monkeys, which were exposed to electromagnetic radiation arising from high voltage power lines. It was found that the monkeys had, as a result of the radiation, an acceleration of the heart rate, and a slowing of the ability to react to stimuli. In rats exposed to such radiation, changes in learning ability were found. The American Environmental Protection Agency, in view of these findings, defined the radiation of the high voltage lines as a "possible cause of health risk".

In studies designed to examine the effect of this radiation, and radiation at an even lower frequency, on sexual development and function, the researchers exposed pregnant mice to radiation at different rates. The exposure was carried out during the period when sexual differentiation takes place in the developing brain of the fetus. The males that were born developed very large testes and showed a certain decrease in the typical male behavior. In contrast, adult male mice that were exposed to radiation responded by reducing the size of the testicles, and did not show any behavioral change. The meaning of these findings is not clear, and since the biological effect of low-frequency radiation is still not understood, it seems that many more years will pass until it becomes clear whether electromagnetic radiation, one way or another, can indeed have an estrogenic effect in animals, or in humans.

and meanwhile in the general population

In the meantime, long-term human studies carried out in Europe and the USA in the past decades indicate an alarming trend of a rather sharp increase in the incidence rate of testicular cancer. The relative proportion of male babies born with a testicular defect is also steadily increasing. These are defects that may later cause the inability to produce sperm cells - and infertility. Sperm count surveys performed regularly, in the population defined as normal, show a decrease in the percentage of effective sperm cells produced in the bodies of contemporary men, compared to sperm count data collected in the two previous generations. All these phenomena, with the exception of testicular cancer, were observed at a particularly high rate, in males whose mothers, during their pregnancy, were treated with synthetic drugs that contained estrogenic substances.