title: Age of puberty and sexual orientation in a national probability sample.
abstract: The relations between sexual orientation and age of puberty in both men and women were examined in a national probability sample of the United States. The sample was the National Health and Social Life Survey (E. O. Laumann, J. H. Gagnon, R. T. Michael, & S. Michaels, 1994), which contains 3432 cases. Gay/bisexual men reported an earlier age of puberty (e.g., age of first pubic hair) relative to heterosexual men, but lesbian/bisexual women did not report a different age of puberty (i.e., age of menarche) than heterosexual women. These results confirm findings from prior research examining age of puberty using nonrepresentative samples and add to a body of literature suggesting that gay/bisexual men may score, on average, in the female-typical direction on certain sex-dimorphic physical and developmental characteristics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada L2S 3A1. tbogaert@spartan.ac.brocku.ca
authors.forename: Anthony F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Bogaert
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Friesen
authors.forename: Panagiota
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Klentrou
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011627:Puberty / Q000502:physiology*; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000502:physiology*