Testosterone appears to protect women against eating disorders, suggesting that biological factors - and not just social influences - are linked to anorexia and bulimia, say researchers from Michigan State University.
Studying sets of twins, the researchers found that females who were in the womb with male twins have a lower risk for eating disorder symptoms than females who were in the womb with female twins. Previous research has shown that females in the womb with males are exposed to higher levels of testosterone.
Writing in the Archives of General Psychiatry, Michigan researcher Kelly Klump said it appeared that testosterone exposure could have a protective effect against the development of disordered eating. She added that researchers have known for years that women are more affected by eating disorders than men but the question of whether biological influences also play a role has been an understudied area.
The findings could ultimately help improve the treatment of eating disorders. "More and more animal researchers are discovering how testosterone affects brain development," Klump said. "So if we know there are protective factors against eating disorders, we can potentially determine which areas of the brain might be particularly sensitive to prenatal testosterone exposure and use that information to identify new biological treatments."
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Source: Michigan State University
