Heino F. L. Meyer-Bahlburg, PhD

Psychologist, Psychiatry Service, New York Presbyterian Hospital; Professor of Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University

Dr. Meyer-Bahlburg is Associate Director of the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, and Director of its Interdisciplinary Research Methods Core, a Research Scientist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry of Columbia University. He also co-directs a research program in Developmental Psychoendocrinology with a focus on intersexuality and the development of gender identity and its variants, and a Psychoendocrine Clinic that continues similar work he did at the State University of New York at Buffalo (1970-1977).  Since 1987, Dr. Meyer-Bahlburg has been affiliated with the HIV Center with a focus on psychosexual assessment, the development and determinants of sexual risk behavior, and the effects of HIV disease on sexual functioning.  He is the author of over 200 publications, mostly in the area of sexuality and gender.

Dr. Meyer-Bahlburg’s research interests focus on the development of gender identity, gender role behavior, and sexual orientation, taking into account both biological and rearing factors. Research projects involve children, adolescents, and adults with endocrine disorders or with a history of prenatal exposure to exogenous hormones, or presumably hormonally normal individuals with gender disorders.  Current projects include: (1) Long-term psychiatric and behavioral sequelae of prenatal exposure to diethylstilbestrol; (2) the long-term psychiatric and behavioral correlates of prenatal and postnatal androgen excess in females; (3) the development of sexual behavior in pre- and peri-pubertal children; and (4) sex behavior, sexual functioning, gender, and HIV disease.

Dr. Meyer-Bahlburg earned his undergraduate degree and diplomate from the University of Hamburg in Germany, and graduated magna cum laude from University of Düsseldorf, also in Germany, where he received Dr. rer. nat. (PhD) degree in Psychology.  He previously served as a Member of the Gender Identity Disorder Committee of the American Psychiatric Association, and a member of its Subcommittee on Child and Adolescent Work. Additionally, for over a decade he served as a Pediatric Behavioral Endocrinologist, Psychiatry Service at New York Presbyterian Hospital.  Since 1999, he has been a member of the North American Task Force on Intersexuality.