Aggressive behavioral characteristics, hormones, and sexual orientation in men and women

Fifty-eight normal adolescent Swedish boys, aged 16, provided two sets of blood samples for plasma testosterone assays as well as data on a number of personality inventories and rating scales assessing aggression, inpulsiveness, lack of frustration tolerance, extraversion, and anxiety. Physical variables such as pubertal stage, height, weight, chest circumference, and physical strength were measured. There was a significant association (r = 0.44) between plasma testosterone levels and self-reports of physical and verbal aggression, mainly reflecting responsiveness to provocation and threat. Lack of frustration tolerance was also related to testosterone levels. About 40% of the variance in perfectly reliable testosterone measurements could be predicted from equally reliable Physical + Verbal Aggression and Lack of Frustration Tolerance scales. Pubertal stage was correlated with testosterone (r = 0.44), but the above-mentioned relationships could not be accounted for by pubertal stage as a third common variable. Previous hypotheses relating testosterone to strong body build and antisocial behavior, respectively, received only weak or no support.

Sexual interest and activity at different stages of the menstrual cycle was recorded by 55 women with normal ovulatory cycles. In women with marked cyclical mood change, there was an associated cyclical pattern of sexual feelings. Subjective sexuality independent of mood change, was maximal in the mid-follicular (i.e., postmenstrual) and late luteal (i.e., premenstrual) phases. Sexual activity was maximal in the mid-follicular phase. There was no evidence of a periovulatory increase in sexual interest or activity. Mean testosterone levels were correlated with masturbation frequency but not with sexuality involving the partner. A weak association between testosterone and life style (i.e., in full-time work or a housewife) was also evident.

Four androgens: dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), androstenedione (A), testosterone (T), and dihydrotestosterone (DHT), a variety of sexual behaviors and attitudes, and several moods were determined regularly in two groups of healthy, married women who differed by three decades in age. The younger women exhibited significantly higher levels of each androgen, the differences being almost entirely attributable to ovarian failure in the older group. Although the older women reported the same levels of sexual desire and sexual arousal as the younger women, their intercourse frequencies and self-rated sexual gratification scores were significantly lower than the values obtained for the younger wives. One or more of the androgen levels related significantly and in the expected direction to each stage of the four-stage sexual response process. Global measures of so-called "sexual adjustment" and estimates of anxiety, depression, and hostility feelings experienced by these women did not relate significantly to any of the four androgen levels.