Sex and Gender | A Biological Perspective.

Scientists and humanitarians have been trying to answer the question of sex for centuries - what defines a male from a female. The word women integrates the word "men", suggesting that the male and the female can be within each other - therefore, having equal human rights and power with the exception of their biological function. When we talk about the biological function of a man and a woman, we differentiate the two sexes with overt primary characteristics - the woman has the vagina, therefore produces ovaries and the man has testes, therefore holds the sperm and this is how life is made.

The question of DNA is no longer of a concern to millennials, and the honest truth is that we do not care to define, differentiate, categorize a man and a woman. But what if our cells choose to differentiate us from one another - can we possible stop the mechanistic pathways that projects our reality? What if I told you, that the way our DNA is transcribed can actually play a huge role in our destiny?

Yes, it all comes down to our cells, those little tiny, proliferating, asymmetrical circles, making us who we are.

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Sex and gender effects are often found to interact in many diseases. There are a number of different diseases that appear in one of the sexes and that do not appear in another. Both epigenetic and genetic factors contribute to the interaction of sex and gender during development and adulthood. The X- and Y- linked genes have been found to determine if the ovaries or the testes will be formed. Once this is figured out, subsequent sex hormones are formed, activating sex-specific gene expression of the germ cells.

Epigenetic factors help organize the effects of the sex hormones. As the germ cell develops in a fetus, a child, and an adult, environmental influences, such as lifestyle, nutrition and stress lead to epigenetic alternations that are transmitted by the germ line and consequently contribute to sex-specific diseases.

Significant biological differences that exist between men and women have contributed to identifying sex-specific diseases.

How might these sex differences effect the mechanistic pathway of a specific diseaseÉ

An example question we might ask is:

What might be the underlying factor of heart disease in men and women and how can we translate a solution from a mouse model to a human?