Published on 12:00 AM, March 10, 2016

Editorial

Who's that girl?

So, International Women's Day was on March 8. If you're a man, you might be thinking “this doesn't concern me” but consider this:  

Initially, all human fetuses are female, in that the default pathway is to develop into a female. During the eighth week of gestation, the presence of a Y-chromosome and a functional locus for the SRY gene product, also called the testes determining factor (TDF), determines if testicular development will occur. This process converts the inherently female fetus into a male one, as a steadily increasing surge of testosterone is then produced by the testes. Much of the testosterone is converted to dihydrotestosterone, which is the key hormone to turn the fetus into male. 

So, yes, we were ALL that girl. 

– Karim Waheed, Editor, SHOUT.