Essentials: How Hormones Shape Sexual Development

Huberman Lab

Scicomm Media

Science, Health & Fitness, Life Sciences

4.8 • 26.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this Huberman Lab Essentials episode, I explain the crucial role hormones play in shaping the sexual development of both the brain and body. I discuss how biological masculinization and feminization depend on factors such as genetics, hormone ratios, and receptor availability. I also explore how hormones like testosterone, estrogen, and other steroid hormones influence sexual characteristics and brain development. Additionally, I examine the impact of environmental factors—such as herbicides like atrazine, cannabis, alcohol, and even cell phones—on hormone function and reproductive health. Huberman Lab Essentials are short episodes (approximately 30 minutes) focused on key science and protocol takeaways from past Huberman Lab episodes. Essentials are released every Thursday, while full-length episodes continue to be released every Monday. Read the full episode show notes, including referenced articles, resources, and people mentioned at hubermanlab.com. This Huberman Lab Essentials episode is from the full-length episode, available here: https://go.hubermanlab.com/PQYuc9i Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman Function: https://functionhealth.com/huberman Our Place: https://fromourplace.com/huberman BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/huberman Timestamps 00:00:00 Huberman Lab Essentials; Hormones, Sexual Development 00:01:25 Chromosomal Sex, Gonadal Sex, Hormonal Sex, Morphology 00:06:08 Sponsor: Function 00:07:56 Steroid Hormones, Sexual Characteristics 00:10:59 Primary & Secondary Sexual Characteristics, Dihydrotestosterone (DHT), Kisspeptin 00:15:12 Masculinization of Brain, Estrogen 00:16:29 Sponsors: Our Place, BetterHelp 00:19:15 Herbicides, Atrazine, Hormone Effects, Sperm Counts 00:25:04 Female Sexual Development, Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome 00:28:37 Sponsor: AG1 00:29:41 Cannabis & Aromatase Activity, Gynecomastia; Alcohol & Estrogen Activity 00:32:34 Cell Phones & Gonads 00:35:24 Beard & Hair Growth, DHT 00:38:42 Hyenas, Hormones, Androstenedione; Plants 00:43:44 Recap & Key Takeaways Disclaimer & Disclosures

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Huberman Lab Essentials, where we revisit past episodes for the most potent and actionable
0:05.8	science-based tools for mental health, physical health, and performance. I'm Andrew Huberman,
0:12.9	and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. This podcast
0:18.7	is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford.
0:21.9	Today we're going to explore hormones, what they are, how they work, what leads to
0:26.3	masculinization or feminization of the brain and body. What we're trying to do today is really get to
0:33.8	the biology, the physiology, the endocrinology, and the behavior.
0:39.0	Hormones, by definition, are a substance, a chemical that's released in one area of the body,
0:44.6	typically from something we call a gland, although they can also be released from neurons,
0:49.9	but they're released often from glands that travel and have effects both on that gland,
0:56.8	but also on other organs and tissues in the body.
1:00.0	And that differentiates hormones from things like neurotransmitters,
1:03.5	which tend to act more locally.
1:05.5	Examples of tissues that produce hormones would be the thyroid,
1:10.0	the testes, the ovaries, et cetera.
1:13.6	And then of course there are areas of the brain like the hypothalamus and the pituitary,
1:17.6	which are closely related to one another and release hormones that cause the release of yet other hormones out in the body.
1:24.6	So let's start with development.
1:27.5	Sperm meets egg. Everything that happens before that is a topic of the next episode.
1:32.3	But sperm meets egg, this is mammalian reproduction, and that egg starts to duplicate.
1:37.8	It starts to make more of itself. It makes more cells. And eventually some of those cells
1:41.6	become skin, some of those cells become brain, some of those cells become muscle, some of those cells become skin some of those cells become brain some of those cells become muscle some of those cells become fingers all
	...

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