Dyslexia, not necessarily a male hormone disorder

 

I was wondering about Dyslexia and the belief that it's connected to
unusual male hormone levels. It is believed that majority of Dyslexics
are male, and so that Dyslexia is testosterone-connected condition.
Dyslexics have strong visual spatial abilities, and those are said to
be abilities than men typically have. Many Dyslexics have speech
delays. It is said that males talk later than females. That's another
reason why people might think Dyslexic is a condition linked to male
hormones.

However, I am Dyslexic. I have Dyspraxia and ADHD too. All 3
conditions have been diagnosed. I do have history of speech delays
and speech problems connected to my Dyslexia and Dyspraxia. I also
have strong visual spatial abilities including that I am very
imaginative and think mainly in pictures. You would think that I have
high amount of testosterone levels. The thing is that I don't. I
never fit the traditional male stereotype. I have strong feminine
traits including a high voice, very sensitive, and very emotional.
That's why I have been mistook for being gay by lots of people even
though I am heterosexual and have been attracted to the opposite sex
since preschool.

There has been research on finger length ratios. Index finger is
digit 2 or 2D. Ring finger is digit 4 or 4D. The length of fingers
is genetically linked to the sex hormones. A person with a ring finger
longer than index finger will have had more exposure to testosterone
in the womb. That would be a low 2D:4D ratio. A person with an index
finger longer than ring finger will have had more exposure to estrogen
in the womb. That would be a high 2D:4D ratio. Males generally have
ring longer than index finger. Females generally have ring finger
and index finger the same length which would be 1.0 or a high digit
ratio. I am male with a high 2D:4D ratio with my index finger being
longer than my ring finger. That would indicate that I have been
exposed to more estrogen in my mother's womb.

A survey of academics at the University of Bath has found that male
scientists typically have a level of the hormone estrogen as high as
their testosterone level. The study draws on research suggesting that
these unusual hormone levels in many male scientists cause the right
side of their brains which governs spatial skills to develop
strongly. A survey of the finger lengths of over 100 male and female
academics at the University by senior Psychology lecturer Dr. Mark
Brosnan has found that those men teaching hard sciences, like
mathematics and physics, tend to have index fingers as long as their
ring fingers which indicates having unusually high estrogen levels for
males. It is also found that male academics with longer ring fingers
than index fingers which is the unusual tended not to be in science
but in social science subjects, such as psychology and education.

The research now suggests that lower than average testosterone levels
in men lead to spatial skills that give a man the ability to succeed
in science. Other research has in the past also suggested that an
unusually high level of testosterone can do the same thing by
encouraging the development of the right hemisphere.
the extremes of low testosterone and high testosterone for men would
create the scientific brain, and the normal range in the middle would
create the social science brain. My lower than average levels of
testosterone might have led me to have spatial skills which is part of
my Dyslexia.

There is a syndrome called Klinefelter Syndrome. It has to do with
males having an extra X chromosome like XXY,XXXY. These are males
that have low testosterone levels and very high estrogen levels.
Learning disabilities, language disabilities, and speech problems are
very typical of men with Klinefelter Syndrome. 50 percent of
Klinefelter males have Dyslexia. Now if Dyslexia is thought to be
a testosterone-linked condition and many Klinefelter Syndrome males
have Dyslexia, then Dyslexia is not a testosterone-linked condition
because Klinefelter men who have low testosterone have Dyslexia.

Dyslexia is not necessarily a male hormone disorder because a lot of
males with low male hormone levels have Dyslexia ,and I am one of
them. Also strong visual spatial thinking skills is not only present
in males with high testosterone but also present in males with low
testosterone. I am one of those males. Many male scientists have low
testosterone levels and strong visual spatial ability. Therefore, I
wouldn't generalize that Dyslexia is a male hormone disorder that
causes the right hemisphere to develop strongly because that is not
the case in a lot of males that don't have high testosterone levels.
You won't find all dyslexics having low 2D:4D finger ratios with ring
finger being longer than index finger. You won't find that in this
Dyslexic. That's for sure.


Finger length ratio:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?term=pto-3791.html&fromMod=popular
http://psych.unn.ac.uk/users/nick/HBppws07/tsld005.htm
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20040530/ai_n14577180
http://www.bath.ac.uk/pr/releases/fingerlength.htm
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=5734
http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/manning.html

Klinefelter Syndrome:
http://www.healthofchildren.com/I-K/Klinefelter-Syndrome.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/klinefelter-s-syndrome
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000382.htm


https://groups.google.com/g/alt.support.dyslexia/c/IkXsu39C2NE/m/bzpxgf0LM3oJ



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Hallowell-Ratey Criteria for ADD

  The Hallowell-Ratey Criteria for A DD from page 14 of Thom Hartmann's Complete Guide to ADHD     In 1992, psychiatrists Edward M. Halowell and John J. Ratey developed, through years of clinical practice, study, and observation, their own set of criteria for spotting probable ADD, particularly in adults. While this isn't an "official" set of diagnostic criteria, since its first appearance in their book Driven to Distraction it has become both lay people and clinicians measure the probably of a person having ADD.   In publishing this, they added this caveat: "The following criteria are suggested only. They are based upon our clinical experience and constitute what we consider to be the most commonly encountered symptoms in adults with Attention Defict Disorder. These criteria have not been validated by field trials, and should be regarded as only as a clinical guide. Consider a criterian as met only if the behavior is considerably more frequent than ...
Read more

Understanding ADD

  Understanding ADD pages 38 -47 of The Gift of Learning by Ronald D. Davis     ADD AND DISORIENTATION The general definition of ADD is almost good enough: developmentally inappropriate inattention and impulsivity with and without hyperactivity. However one component is missing: spontaneous disorientation. Disorientation is a major factor in the life of any person with ADD. It happens easily and often. It is usually driven by emotion. Boredom, curiosity, confusion, and fear are just a few of the emotions that can trigger an ADD disorientation. In exploring spontaneous disorientation, I have that these triggering emotions can be reduced to two types: avoidance and engagement. In a boring situation, the person may disorient to avoid the boredom. This would be commonly recognized as daydreaming or simply as not paying attention. The student actually is paying attention, but has shifted it to an imaginary inner world that is more interesting. On the other hand, ...
Read more

Characteristics of ADD

  Characteristics of ADD from page 9 of Thom Hartmann's Complete Guide To ADHD     ADD is not an all-or-nothing diagnosis. There appears to be a curve of behaviors and personality types, ranging from extremely-non-ADD to extremely-ADD. Although there has not yet been enough research in the field to know the shape of this curve, it probably resembles a bell curve, with the majority of "normal" individuals falling somewhere in the center, showing a few ADD-like characteristics, and minority (perhaps somewhere around 20-30 % of the population) being split up on the two extreme ends of the spectrum. Since a large body of research indicates that ADD is a hereditary condition, the distribution of this curve may well reflect the intermixing over the years of the genetic material of ADD and non-ADD individuals, blurring the edges of both types of behaviors. Placed along the spectrum of ADD individuals you will find people who typically exhibit some or all...
Read more