Fertility

Hypersexual disorder may stem from a problem in the way individuals regulate the hormone oxytocin. The discovery could open the door to new treatments.People with hypersexual disorder have behaviour associated with intense sexual fantasies to the extent that it can be distressing and disruptive to their life. However, it is contentious whether it should be considered a clinical condition.Little is known about the biological underpinnings of hypersexual disorder. To find out more, Adrian Boström at Uppsala University in Sweden and his colleagues studied whether people with the condition have different gene expressions.They compared blood samples from 60 people with hypersexual disorder and 33 people without the condition to see if they had different epigenetic markers – patterns in their DNA that affect which genes are switched on and off.The results identified two regions of DNA that were different in people with the condition. These differences were associated with reduced levels of a molecule called MIR4456, which suppresses signalling of oxytocin, sometimes called the “love hormone” due its role in human bonding.This was consistent with further work showing that people with hypersexual disorder had unusually high oxytocin levels, which dropped after they underwent cognitive behavioural therapy.The findings suggest that using drugs to regulate the hormone could be a way to regulate the condition.Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2217231-hypersexual-disorder-linked-to-genes-that-regulate-love-hormone/#ixzz6HaIslgdL

People with hypersexual disorder have behaviour associated with intense sexual fantasies to the extent that it can be distressing and disruptive to their life.

Hypersexual disorder linked to genes that regulate love hormone

Some may believe that chance brings you together with your loved one, but scientists have found a far less romantic reason. Mate choice is influenced by our genes, in part by those responsible for our height, according to research published in Genome Biology.An analysis of the genotype of more than 13,000 human heterosexual couples found that genes that determine your height also influence your choice of mate by height. This provides more understanding into why we choose partners of a similar height.Over the last century, numerous studies have found that height was a key trait when choosing a mate, but until now there has been no explanation for this preference. This study investigates both, individual physical traits in relation to mate choice and the role played by underlying genetic variation.Lead author, Albert Tenesa, from University of Edinburgh, says, "Our genes drive our attraction for partners of similar height to ours, i.e. tall people pair with tall people. We found that 89% of the genetic variation affecting individual preferences for height and one's own height are shared, indicating that there's an innate preference for partners of similar height."Our height is determined by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Using height as a model physical trait of attractiveness, the researchers sought to determine whether sexual attraction is driven by genes controlling a preference for a mate's height. They investigated whether the genes controlling your own height influence your preference for a mate of similar height to you.Our genes can be used to predict the height of our partner. Albert Tenesa says, "Using one partner's genes for height, we estimated the height of the chosen partner with 13% accuracy. The similarity in height between partners is driven by the observed physical appearance of the partner, specifically their height, rather than influenced by the social or genetic structure of the population we live in.Using white-British male and female pairs the team analyzed to what extent attraction to a mate of similar height was explained by a person's genetic make-up. The analysis provided correlations between one's own height and one's genetic make-up. These correlations indicated that genotype (one's genetic make-up) determines not only phenotype (one's physical appearance), but also one's preference for a mate with a particular appearance.Mate selection driven by one's height is more than just a chance event and has important social and biological implications for human populations. The mating pattern observed for height is known as assortative mating, a mating pattern where individuals of similar physical characteristics mate more frequently than expected by chance. Assortative mating influences how DNA variation is arranged in the genome, which may have important implications for other human traits including disease susceptibility.This study brings researchers closer to understanding the mechanisms that govern sexual attraction and those that drive human variation.Reference: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160119141424.htm

An analysis of the genotype of more than 13,000 human heterosexual couples found that genes that determine your height also influence your choice of mate by height.

Physical attraction linked to genes that control height

Researchers studied the timing of puberty for 672 girls and 846 boys relative to their parents and found kids who developed pubic hair and other hallmarks of adulthood at an unusually young age tended to have mothers and fathers who also matured early.“Both genetic and environmental factors undoubtedly influence puberty timing”, said lead study author Dr. Christine Wohlfahrt-Veje, a growth and development researcher at the University of Copenhagen.To look at the contribution of genetics to puberty timing, Wohlfahrt-Veje and colleagues examined medical records from annual checkups kids received between 2006 and 2013 as well as data on parental puberty timing from questionnaires completed by their parents.When fathers matured early, boys tended to develop pubic hair almost one year ahead of boys with fathers who went through puberty late. Sons of men who developed early also grew enlarged testes about 9.5 months sooner than sons of fathers who went through puberty late.Girls with fathers that matured early started menstruating about 10.5 months sooner than girls with late-bloomers for fathers, and the girls of fathers who went through early puberty also developed pubic hair around 7 months before girls whose fathers developed late. Early breast development in girls, however, didn’t appear to be tied to early puberty in their fathers.When mothers went through puberty early, their sons and daughters tended to follow suit. Daughters of women who matured early typically started menstruating about 10 months sooner than girls with late-blooming mothers. Sons of women who went through puberty early typically went through genital maturation about 6.5 months before boys with mothers who developed late.One shortcoming of the study is that researchers relied on parents to accurately recall and report on when they went through puberty many years earlier. They also got more data from mothers than fathers, which may have affected the relative influence of each parent in the results.Because the study didn’t find as strong an association with parental puberty timing and breast development in girls, this suggests that other factors beyond genetics may influence puberty in girls, the authors conclude in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.Still, when kids develop early, they quite likely came from a long line of early bloomers.“A large proportion of this variation seems to be explained by genetics”, Wohlfahrt-Veje added. “If either the mother or father had early or late pubertal development it is likely to influence the timing of pubertal onset in both their sons and daughters.”Reference: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-puberty-genetics/puberty-timing-influenced-by-both-parents-idUSKCN0XC1U1

To look at the contribution of genetics to puberty timing, Wohlfahrt-Veje and colleagues examined medical records from annual checkups kids received between 2006 and 2013 as well as data on parental puberty timing from questionnaires completed by their parents.

Puberty timing influenced by both parents

Your genes alone can’t predict whether you’ll choose a same sex-partner, but they do play a role. That’s the conclusion of a major study published today in Science that looked at data from more than 470,000 people, including 23andMe customers and individuals in the U.K. Biobank, a government-funded medical database.Researchers gave participants a questionnaire about whether they had ever engaged in same-sex sexual behavior and examined their genes. They discovered five variations in the human genome that those who reported same-sex sexual experiences tended to have in common.However, each genetic variant had a very small effect individually — that is, each variant on its own contributed very little to a person’s sexual behavior. Two of the five variants are common to both men and women, two are unique to men, and one was found only in women. In other words, it would be “basically impossible to predict one’s sexual activity or orientation just from genetics,” said Andrea Ganna, a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and a co-author on the paper, during the press conference.If there were only one or two gay genes, they would be very rare throughout the population. Why? If gay and lesbian people aren’t having the type of sex that leads to offspring, they’re not going to pass on their genes to subsequent generations.﻿So, those genes would disappear from the population over time. But they haven’t. A 2018 Gallup poll estimates that about 4.5% of Americans identify as LGBTQ. This latest study sheds light on why gay genes haven’t been wiped out of the population: There are many of them.“Natural selection hasn’t removed this element of human diversity from the population because it can’t,” says Yoder.One thing to keep in mind is that the study looked at people who had reported at least one same-sex sexual experience, rather than sexual feelings, orientation, or identity. So an older person who grew up in an era when it was not socially acceptable to be openly gay might not have ever had a same-sex sexual experience but could still be attracted to people of the same sex and identify as gay.You might wonder, why even study the genetic underpinnings of sexual orientation? Such studies could bolster the idea that, if sexual preference is genetic, then there could be a way to treat or even “cure” gayness. The study authors say that their findings don’t imply that experiences of LGBTQ individuals are “wrong” or “disordered.” Instead, their results provide more evidence that a wide variation in human sexuality is completely normal. “It underscores the fact that this is a natural part of our species,” Neale said.“The risk is that people will use genetic studies of sexuality to try to predict the sexual orientation of a fetus or a child, and then choose to abort a pregnancy or change their parenting practices based on a faulty prediction,” Michael White, a geneticist at Washington University who wasn’t involved in the study says.You might wonder, why even study the genetic underpinnings of sexual orientation? Such studies could bolster the idea that, if sexual preference is genetic, then there could be a way to treat or even “cure” gayness. The study authors say that their findings don’t imply that experiences of LGBTQ individuals are “wrong” or “disordered.” Instead, their results provide more evidence that a wide variation in human sexuality is completely normal. “It underscores the fact that this is a natural part of our species,” Neale said.Reference:https://onezero.medium.com/many-genes-not-just-one-influence-sexual-preference-5d4a57d57494

Two of the five variants are common to both men and women, two are unique to men, and one was found only in women.

Many genes, not just one influence sexual preference

Genetic variants associated with the age at which a person first engages in sexual intercourse are reported in a paper published online this week in Nature Genetics. The study sheds light on how the timing of puberty may affect age at first sexual intercourse (AFS), and how both affect social and health outcomes.AFS has been correlated with a number of social and behavioral factors, such as social disadvantage and family instability. Genetic factors also contribute to AFS and related traits, including age at first birth (AFB) in women, although the extent of this contribution is unknown. Genetic variants associated with timing of puberty - which has decreased from an average age of 18 years in 1880 to 12.5 years in 1980 - in both men and women have been recently identified, and some studies have reported a correlation between puberty timing and AFS, suggesting that they may also be correlated at the genetic level.Ken Ong, John Perry and colleagues conducted a genome-wide association study of more than 125,000 participants (59,357 men and 66,310 women aged 40-69 years) from the UK Biobank study and identified 38 variants associated with AFS. They then replicated these findings in 241,910 men and women from Iceland and 20,187 healthy American women (aged greater than 45 years) of European-ancestry from the Women’s Genome Health Study. The authors found that both AFS and AFB have a moderate genetic component and that both are independently genetically correlated with timing of puberty. The authors used a statistical method called Mendelian randomization to infer a causal effect of puberty timing on AFS and AFB (i.e., earlier puberty leads to earlier AFS and AFB). They also predicted causal effects of all three traits on social and behavioral outcomes, such as educational attainment.Some of the variants associated with AFS were located in or near genes that have been previously implicated in risk-taking propensity, irritable temperament, number of children, and processes and traits related to brain development. However, whether any of these genes are involved in regulating the timing of puberty, AFS or AFB remains to be determined.Reference: https://www.natureasia.com/en/research/highlight/10634

Genetic variants associated with the age at which a person first engages in sexual intercourse are reported in a paper published online this week in Nature Genetics. The study sheds light on how the timing of puberty may affect age at first sexual intercourse (AFS), and how both affect social and health outcomes.

Genetic factors influencing sexual activity

Your sexual desire or lack thereof could be in your genes, scientists announced today. The discovery might change how psychologists view sexuality.The researchers found that individual differences in human sexual desire can be attributed to genetic variations. The study is the first to provide data to show that common variations in the sequence of DNA impact on sexual desire, arousal and function, the researchers said.The scientists, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, examined the DNA of 148 healthy male and female university students and compared the results with questionnaires asking for the students' self-descriptions of their sexual desire, arousal and sexual function. They found a correlation between variants in a gene called the D4 receptor and the students' self-reports on sexuality.The results suggest that low sexual desire might be a normal biological condition rather than a psychological problem, the researchers say. Further, it might be possible to develop drugs to alter sexual desire based on the new findings.The research was led by Richard Ebstein and was published in the online version of the journal Molecular Psychiatry.Reference: https://www.livescience.com/10488-study-sexual-desire-genes.html

The results suggest that low sexual desire might be a normal biological condition rather than a psychological problem, the researchers say. Further, it might be possible to develop drugs to alter sexual desire based on the new findings.

Study: Sexual Desire is in Your Genes

Two genes clarify the genetic control of female sexual maturation, and point to regulatory mechanisms involved in human growth and development.Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School, along with collaborators from research institutions across Europe and the United States, have for the first time identified two genes that are involved in determining when girls begin menstruation.&nbsp;The findings of the study could have ramifications for normal human growth and weight too, because early-age menstruation is also associated with shorter stature and increased body weight. In general, girls who achieve menstruation earlier in life tend to have greater body mass index (BMI) and a higher ratio of fat compared to those who begin menstruation later.The study carried out an analysis of 17,510 women across eight different international population-based sources. This number included women of European descent who reported the age at which they reached menstruation of between nine and 17 years.The two genes identified were on chromosomes nine and six. One in 20 females carry two copies of each of the gene variations which result in menstruation starting earlier, and they will start menstruating approximately four and half months earlier than those with no copies of the gene variants.Dr Anna Murray from the Peninsula Medical School, commented: "This study provides the first evidence that common genetic variants influence the time at which women reach sexual maturation. Our findings also indicate a genetic basis for the associations between early menstruation and both height and BMI."She added: "The study takes us nearer to understanding the biology of the processes involved in puberty and early growth and to understand what constitutes 'normal' in growth and development."Fellow author John Perry, also from the Peninsula Medical School, added: "Understanding the biological mechanisms behind reproductive lifespan may also help inform us about associated diseases that affect a lot of women as they get older, including diabetes, heart disease and breast cancer."Reference: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090517143215.htm

The study carried out an analysis of 17,510 women across eight different international population-based sources. This number included women of European descent who reported the age at which they reached menstruation of between nine and 17 years.

Genes That Influence Start Of Menstruation Identified For First Time

At least one in five cases of infertility remain unexplained. Male factors contribute to about half of these cases and, much of the time, men lack a specific causal diagnosis for their infertility. Researchers estimate that genetics could explain up to 50 percent of these cases, but many of the genes involved in male infertility remain unknown. A new study led by investigators at Brigham and Women's Hospital identifies a genetic abnormality that may be at fault. Investigators have found that a genetic rearrangement and variants affecting a gene known as SYCP2 are associated with low sperm count and report the first cases implicating the gene in four men with infertility.The team's findings are published in the American Journal of Human Genetics."We hope that our evidence will contribute to this gene being in panels for diagnosis of male infertility," said corresponding author Cynthia Morton, PhD, medical geneticist at the Brigham. "Infertility is a big problem for young people, and 40 to 72 percent of men lack a diagnosis. This means that we have a lot of gene finding to do. My lab has a longstanding interest in studying individuals who have a balanced chromosome rearrangement where two chromosome segments swap places. In this case, it led us to an important discovery."Morton, former graduate student and first author Samantha Schilit, PhD, and colleagues from Harvard Medical School and Wesleyan University began the work that would lead them to SYCP2 when a physician referred a case to them. Known as DGAP230, the subject was studied as part of the Developmental Genome Anatomy Project (DGAP), an initiative Morton began in 1999 to understand the genetic basis of birth defects and underlying molecular basis of development. By age 28, DGAP230 had a two-year history of infertility and severely low sperm count. By analyzing his chromosomes, Schilit, Morton and colleagues found that the subject had a balanced chromosomal rearrangement on chromosomes 20 and 22. The team discovered that this genetic abnormality led to a 20-fold increase in the activity of SYCP2. Through a series of elegant experiments involving yeast and cellular models, the researchers went about analyzing the impact of this change in SYCP2 activity."Balanced chromosomal rearrangements in infertile men are rarely followed up beyond reporting a risk for segregation of unbalanced gametes, which can lead to recurrent miscarriage. This work shows that a chromosomal rearrangement may also disrupt or dysregulate genes important in fertility, and therefore should be considered," said Schilit.In addition, the researchers looked for other cases of SYCP2 contributing to male infertility. To do so, they collaborated with investigators at the University of Münster who had enrolled men with infertility in a separate study. The team's search revealed three men with loss-of-function variants in SYCP2. Disruptions in SYCP2 were far more frequent among men with infertility than in the general population.Morton notes that while the discoveries about SYCP2 may help inform diagnosis, implications for treatment remain to be determined.“A diagnosis can be therapeutic in itself -- even if there isn't something that can be done to correct it. It ends the search for the underlying issue and opens the door for enrolling in clinical trials," said Morton. "And I believe there is good reason to be optimistic; we now have better tools for discovery and can begin on the path toward therapy."Full article: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/12/191219111425.htm

At least one in five cases of infertility remain unexplained. Male factors contribute to about half of these cases and, much of the time, men lack a specific causal diagnosis for their infertility.

New gene for male infertility discovered

Many women are unable to conceive and deliver a healthy baby due to genetic factors. Sometimes this is due to an inherited chromosome abnormality. Other times it is because of a single-gene defect passed from parent to child.In addition, if other women in your family have had problems conceiving due to premature menopause, endometriosis or other factors, you may be at increased risk of the same problems.<h2>Chromosome abnormalities</h2>Chromosomally abnormal embryos have a low rate of implantation in the mother’s uterus, often leading to miscarriages. If an abnormal embryo does implant, the pregnancy may still result in miscarriage or the birth of a baby with physical problems, developmental delay, or mental retardation.There are several kinds of chromosome abnormalities:·&nbsp;&nbsp;A missing piece of a chromosome (deletion)·&nbsp;&nbsp;An upside-down chromosome (inversion)·&nbsp;&nbsp;A change in the gene’s DNA sequence (mutation)·&nbsp;&nbsp;Too many or too few chromosomes (aneuploidy)·&nbsp;&nbsp;Chromosome pieces attached to the wrong chromosome (translocation)Translocation is the most common of these. Although a parent who carries a translocation is frequently normal, his or her embryo may receive too much or too little genetic material, and a miscarriage often results.Couples with specific chromosome defects may benefit from pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) in conjunction with in vitro fertilization (IVF).Down syndrome is usually associated with advanced maternal age and is a common example of aneuploidy. Down syndrome is caused by having an extra number-21 chromosome (three instead of two). It is also referred to as trisomy 21.<h2>Inherited genetic diseases</h2>More rare is the existence of an inherited genetic disease due to abnormal genes or mutations. Chromosome analysis of the parents’ blood identifies such an inherited genetic cause in less than 5 percent of couples.Single-gene abnormalities are mutations caused by changes in the DNA sequence of a gene, which produce proteins that allow cells to work properly. Gene mutations alter the functioning of cells due to a lack of a protein.Single-gene disorders usually indicate a family history of a specific genetic disease such as cystic fibrosis (CF) – an incurable and fatal disease affecting the mucous glands of vital organs – and Tay Sachs, also a fatal disorder, in which harmful quantities of a fatty substance build up in tissues and nerve cells in the brain.Although a couple may otherwise have no fertility problems, IVF and PGD can work together to spare mother and father from heartache in cases where there is a known single-gene family history.Reference: https://fertilitynj.com/infertility/female-infertility/genetic-causes/

In addition, if other women in your family have had problems conceiving due to premature menopause, endometriosis or other factors, you may be at increased risk of the same problems.

Fertility

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