Influence of maternal stress on offspring sexual behaviour

During the last trimester of gestation, pregnant rats were exposed to crowded living conditions, or to immobilization combined with intense illumination. In adulthood, male offspring of mothers exposed to either condition of stress showed increased readiness to display feminine sexual behaviour (lordosis) while no deficits were observed in their masculine sexual behaviour. It was concluded that prenatal stress adversely affects sexual differentiation by causing a feminization but not a demasculinization of male offspring.