Psychosomatic Medicine 24:357-368 (1962)
© 1962 American Psychosomatic Society

Psychoendocrinologic Studies in a Male with Cyclic Changes in Sexuality

¹ Department of Neurology and Psychiatry and the Department of Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, La.
² Department of Neurology and Psychiatry and the Department of Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, La.; The Lahey Clinic, Boston, Mass.

A case of a man who had a cyclic alternation of feeling and acting male and female for 11 years prior to his entering therapy at age 23 is reported. Soon after therapy began, the alternating phases ceased. Accompanying this cessation of periodicity was a striking increase of urinary 17-ketosteroids.

The developmental and the endocrinological data obtained suggest an association between a derangement in the normal development of androgenic characteristics and his homoerotic pattern. The deficiency of adequate levels of male hormones probably served to perpetuate and accentuate pre-existing, learned, effeminate childhood patterns.

A search of the literature has thus far failed to turn up a similar case of rhythmical alternation of maleness and femaleness. The possible psychophysiological bases for this unusual disorder are discussed.