Re: How long are your fingers?

> I've noticed recently that I seem to have grown more
> hair than usual on certain parts of my body.....
It's liable to show up at times in life when the current level of testosterone in relation to estrogen is high. Sometimes at puberty. Very often as estrogen levels drop off in the late thirties and more in the forties and fifties.

> just above the corners of my lips,
one of the most likely areas to have been sensitized before birth to testosterone -- of all the "male-type" facial hair a woman may develop, a moustache is the most likely

> on my toes (esp big toes)
I have very hairy toes too

> and under my belly button
another typical area for "male-type" growth

> and wondered if it was a hormonal imbalance, due to liver
> congestion and hormones not being broken down properly. I'm
> not a particularly hairy woman otherwise.
Quite possibly, because sensitization in the womb doesn't automatically produce excess hair growth, just a predisposition towards it.

> However I also do have very long ring fingers, much
> longer than my index fingers!
That, I think, is a very significant factor in that you must have been exposed to high levels of testosterone in the womb, so you will have at least the potential, other things being equal, to have male-type hair growth even if your current levels of testosterone are not too excessive.

> Do you feel you are more aggressive than other women,
It would be up to others to comment on that :-)

> or have a higher sex drive?
Most definitely yes. And my husband would confirm that emphatically. I'm sure my drive is as high as most males. But I think that that's a reflection of current rather than in-utero testosterone levels, so probably not too relevant in this matter.

> I'm generally quite placid but can be quite reactive
> when I'm under a lot of stress.
> Sex drive can vary from being very high to completely
> non-existant!
That will be a reflection of your current testosterone levels, which are probably fluctuating, rather than your testosterone levels before you were born.

> I would have thought that life experiences and diet
> would also play a part in this.....
No doubt they do.

> just basing it on one factor can be a bit deterministic in my view.
It would indeed. But the thing is that relative finger length is a very simple and apparently a very reliable way of determining the degree of fetal exposure to testosterone and fetal exposure to testosterone does have a determining effect on how our bodies will respond to testosterone at a later stage.

> Anyway, yes I'll be inspecting other people's fingers from now on too!
People will, no doubt, think us very strange :-) But what will be interesting to discover is whether we find a correlation between shorter index/longer ring fingers and facial hair amongst our own acquaintances. Tweet