We looked to see if behavior was associated with any aspect of the disease itself.
We found that girls with more severe forms of CAH (for example, severe salt-wasting) are more likely to be interested in boy-typical activities than girls with milder forms. But we did not find that behavior was related to features of the disease measured during clinic visits close in time to our behavioral tests.
For example, the interests of girls with CAH did not depend on whether they grew quickly or slowly in childhood or what their hormone levels were at the last clinic visit.
Overall, these results suggest that boy-typical interests result, in part, from effects of androgen that occur very early in development, that is, during brain development before birth.
We are studying this topic in more detail now, by looking at girls with CAH who were treated in utero.
If girls whose mothers received dexamethasone during pregnancy are different from girls whose mothers were not treated, then this supports the idea that behavior is affected specifically by androgen levels during prenatal development.
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