Estrogen, testosterone, and gender differences.

Abstract

The purpose of this report is to gain some current perspective on the definition, bases, and trends for research associated with gender differences. To accomplish this goal an analysis on the number of citations from a 1994-2004 Medline search with the terms estrogen, testosterone, gender differences, sex differences as well as the combinations of these terms was performed. Other combinations of terms included separate searches of estrogen, testosterone, and their combination within males or females, and an analysis of gender and sex differences with the terms human and animal. The salient results from this survey include: (1) An overall greater ratio of estrogen:testosterone citations when these terms were searched alone or in combination with gender differences; (2) an overall greater ratio of testosterone:estrogen citations when these terms were combined with sex differences or conducted separately within males or females, although this trend was shifting toward decreased testosterone and increased estrogen citation numbers toward the latter years of the survey; (3) a trend for increasing numbers of estrogen and gender differences citations over the period of the survey; (4) a clear indication for the term gender differences to be associated with the search term human; and (5) a very small number of citations when the terms estrogen and testosterone were combined. Interpretations and implications of these results are discussed.