Sexual fluidity
[7][8][9] There is no consensus on the exact cause of developing a sexual orientation, but genetic, hormonal, social, and cultural influences have been examined.This could be attributed to females' higher erotic plasticity or to sociocultural factors that socialize women to be more open to change."[20] The American Psychiatric Association says individuals may "become aware at different points in their lives that they are heterosexual, gay, lesbian, or bisexual" and "opposes any psychiatric treatment, such as 'reparative' or 'conversion' therapy, which is based upon the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder, or based upon a prior assumption that the patient should change his/her homosexual orientation".For some of 100 non-heterosexual women she followed in her study over a period of 10 years, the word bisexual did not truly express the versatile nature of their sexuality.In Maccio's (2011) review of sexual reorientation therapy attempts, she lists two studies that claim to have successfully converted gay men and lesbians to heterosexuals and four that demonstrate the contrary.The study consisted of 37 former conversion therapy participants (62.2% were male) from various cultural and religious backgrounds who currently or previously identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual.This study stands as support for the biological origin of sexual orientation, but the largely male sample population confounds the findings.[28] Similarly, a study has shown that homosexual men have a sexually dimorphic nucleus in the anterior hypothalamus that is the size of females'.According to the study, "this pattern was consistent with the hypothesis that heterosexuality is a more stable sexual orientation identity, perhaps because of its normative status.Having only adults included in the examined group, they did not find the differences in fluidity which were affected by age of the participants.According to this view, women are capable of forming romantic bonds with both sexes and sexual fluidity may be explained as a reproductive strategy that ensures the survival of offspring.[33] One study that did compare the stability of youth sexual orientation identity across genders found results opposite to most done with adult samples.Rosario et al. (2006) conclude that "acceptance, commitment, and integration of a gay/lesbian identity is an ongoing developmental process that, for many youths, may extend through adolescence and beyond."[38] Sabra L. Katz-Wise and Janet S. Hide report in article published 2014 in "Archives of Sexual Behavior" of their study on 188 female and male young adults in the United States with a same-gender orientation, aged 18–26 years.