Androgen resistance — the clinical and molecular spectrum

RESISTANCE to the action of androgens, like other forms of hormone resistance, is characterized by partial or complete absence of the usual effects of the hormones and normal or increased hormone production.¹ Since androgens are important for normal male sexual development and fertility, defects in androgen action are often associated with abnormal sexual differentiation, infertility, or both. This article reviews the phenotypic variation and the range of molecular defects that have been identified in persons with mutations causing androgen resistance. Male Phenotypic Development During embryogenesis the indifferent gonad in males is converted to a testis in response to a testis-determining.