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defeminization

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defeminization

[dē‚fem·ə·nə′zā·shən]
(physiology)
Loss or reduction of feminine attributes, usually caused by ovarian dysfunction or removal.
(psychology)
Psychic process involving a deep and permanent change in the character of a woman, resulting in a giving up of feminine feelings, and the assumption of masculine qualities.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
References in periodicals archive
Testosterone-induced defeminization of behavior can occur from E18 up to 7 days postpartum.
The critical period for masculinization and/or defeminization in cattle may be between days 80 and 100 of the 284-day gestation period.
Although surges of testosterone production coincide with critical periods of masculinization and defeminization of the brain, testosterone is not the principal hormone responsible for these changes.
In an inversion of the fate of earlier detective heroines, who abandon the profession to retreat into matrimony, the primacy of the professional narrative over the gender narrative imposes Jane Tennison's defeminization; she gives up the personal for the professional.
They apparently go through a defeminization process during adolescence.
Richard Pillard and James Weinrich suggest that there should be further differentiation of the neural influences on gender behavior because there are separate components of the nervous system that control masculinization and defeminization. Masculinizing and defeminizing of the hypothalamus probably occur at four to five months of gestation.
The remaining 2 per cent will be released from their jobs next fall when the final phase of the defeminization legislation comes into effect.
Virilisation is a two phased process: first, there is defeminization like development of oligomenorrhea or amenorrhea, regression of the breasts and external genitalia, atrophy of the uterus and adnexa, and loss of the female body contour; second, there is masculinization which includes hirsutism, acne, clitoral enlargement, increased libido, sterility, enlargement of the larynx, deepening of the voice, increased muscle mass and temporal alopecia.
Defeminization The loss of feminine features during sexual differentiation.
The vaginal cytology of these animals confirmed that significantly more exposed females were acyclic by 6 months of age, an outcome that may be related to defeminization of leutinizing hormone release (31).
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