My mom's completely supportive of me, and doesn't want me to change or anything, but every now and then she suggests that my medications could be part of what influenced my sexual orientation and gender identity. This might sound really crazy, but there is a lot of evidence that my medications I've been on mimic progesterone and interfere with the endocrine system in many ways. They are probably why I didn't start puberty till I was 15. I know that hormones in the womb and genetics are factors in sexual orientation, because over 20% of gay men will have gay fraternal twins, and over 50% will have gay identical twins. But do you think that hormones could possibly have any influence after birth? I've been taking them since I was about 12, although I switched them around some, the whole class of drugs I take (atypical antipsychotics) have the same effects. Well what do you think, is my mom right or wrong?
I'd like to see some case studies to prove it one way or the other. Until then, it is just conjecture.
No evidence I am aware of that *any* medication causes any alteration in sexual orientation. Can you imagine how much outrage there would be from the bigots on the religious right if one of the side effect of some medication were to turn people gay? They'd be marching in the streets demanding an immediate ban. No, what I think is going on is your mom is dealing with the stages of loss (denial-anger-bargaining-grief-acceptance) and she's somewhere between denial and bargaining. Bargaining in the sense of "Oh, you're not gay, it's just the medicine, and when you stop taking it, you'll change back." That's a very common response. So I think you go back to her after doing a bit of research on the medication you're on and gently explain that no, it's not the medication. Go to your local library and ask to look at the Physician's Desk Reference. It's an enormous book of uses and side effects of every commercially available medication sold in the US. It lists literally every known side effect, common or rare, in every medication sold. I'll make a wager that there's no indication of sexual orientation change as one of the side effects of the medication you're on, and that (combined with the argument I made above) should shut her up.
