Prue, there is a NZ CAH Support Group. You may wish to contact Helen Mann via email at: CAHNZ @ snap.net
Helen would also be able to answer your questions re. conferences etc. in NZ.
There are a number of good educational sites regarding CAH. Here are a few:
CLIMB: http://www.cah.org.uk/
National Adrenal Diseases Foundation: http://www.medhelp.org/nadf/
Johns Hopkins site: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/pediatricendocrinology/cah/
CARES Foundation: http://www.caresfoundation.org
Also you would have access to your psychology journals, as well as, other medical literature. FYI - there is a recent article you may have seen from: Developmental Psychology 2003, Vol 39, No 3, pp 440-450 entitled 'Prenatal Androgens and Gender-Typed Behavio(u)r: A Study of Girls with Mild and Severe forms of Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia'. This article concludes that the severity of virilisation in the newborn female baby, (which is dependent on the degree of pre-natal androgenisation) largely determines the degree of subsequent masculinised behaviour.
Berenbaum (2000) and Nordenstroom (2002) in separate studies both published in 'The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism' in the respective years, came to similar conclusions, as the above study. That is: the less pre-natal androgenisation then the less masculinised behaviour, the more pre-natal androgenisation then more masculinised behaviour. Post-natal (ie. after birth) androgenisation has been suggested to affect masculinised behaviour, only minimally if at all!
Another area of interest for you could be, the degree to which CAH itself (where there is a fundamental endogenous cortisol deficiency) or the longterm treatment of corticosteroids (exogenous cortisone) affects mental wellbeing. Anecdotally there seems to be many CAH people who experience levels of depression/anxiety/OCD/ and even very occasionally outright psychosis. Considering the importance of cortisol, as the stress hormone of the body, it is not hard to imagine that with it's disturbance, then other coping maladjustments could follow!!! I don't know how much has been researched and written on this topic but I'd love to read it.
Regards Rosalie
