Raw Story breathlessly reports that a researcher is experimenting with dangerous drugs to stop girls from growing up to be lesbians: "Afraid your daughter may be queer, or not be interested in becoming a mom? Medical researchers think they have a cure for her -- a dangerous steroid you take while pregnant."

Raw Story's emotional report omits critical medical context. The drug in question is a dexamethasone, steroid that women can take if their female fetus tests positive for congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a relatively common inborn error of metabolism that exposes girls to abnormally high levels of male hormones in utero.

One of the most obvious effects of CAH in girls is masculinized genitalia. Girls with CAH may be mistaken for boys at birth because their genitals look more like a penis and a scrotum than a vulva. This interactive animation produced by the the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto shows the effects of CAH on female genitals.

Male and female genitals develop from the same folds of embryonic tissue. Whether a baby is born with a penis and testicles or a vulva and a vagina depends largely on hormone levels in utero. Male fetuses secrete testosterone, which pushes the embryonic tissue down the male developmental path. Female fetuses do not normally secrete testosterone. In the absence of male hormones, genital development continues along the female path. By artificially raising male hormone levels, CAH causes girls' external sex organs to develop according to the male plan.

The effects of CAH go well beyond the shape of the genitals. Patients with classical CAH have to take steroid hormones all their lives in order to stave off a host of potentially life threatening complications. Dexamethasone in utero is just a case of starting the same kind of therapy earlier in an attempt to ward off some of the effects of the excess androgens.

You wouldn't know it from the Raw Story piece, but prenatal dexamethasone therapy has been around since 1978. It has been shown to be effective at reducing masculinization in girls. The drug might have developmental or metabolic side effects for the baby, but none have been definitively substantiated so far. Dexamethasone can definitely have adverse effect on the mother's health, such as excessive weight gain, severe stretch marks, mood swings, and other ills. So, this isn't a treatment to be undertaken lightly.

Raw Story is seizing upon a red herring to discredit dexamethasone. The story cherry picks quotes from researchers to suggest that they're prescribing this drug primarily to stop girls from turning gay or being tomboys.

Neuroscientists have known for years that intrauterine androgens can have some masculinizing effect on the female brain. Girls with CAH are more likely to be tomboys children and more likely to identify as lesbians as adults. CAH has been studied intensively as a window into the biology of gender, gender differences in cognition, and sexual orientation. So, researchers have talked a lot about identity and orientation in CAH girls. It's easy to quote them selectively after the fact to make it sound they're part of an anti-gay conspiracy to make little girls grow up with "normal" maternal instincts. Even if some researchers have retrograde attitudes about sex and gender, that doesn't invalidate the potential benefits of the drug.