Importance of perinatal testosterone in sexual differentiation in the male rat

Testosterone secretion in the male rat was high during the late fetal and immediate postnatal periods. It then showed a rapid decrease 3h after birth and remained low until puberty. Male rats from mothers given daily injections of an antibody to testosterone during the week before delivery displayed an LH peak when they were adult, orchidectomized and implanted with oestradiol. However, the amplitude of the peak was far smaller than in female rats from the same mothers treated in the same manner. Thus, the critical period during which testosterone triggers hypothalamic sexual differentiation is very close to birth, possibly starting at the end of the fetal period.