Boyd Haley, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Chemistry Department, University of Kentucky discusses the issue of testosterone and mercury:
"One of the conundrums of autism is the 4:1 ratio of boys to girls that get the disease. We therefore decided to test the effects of both female and male hormones on the neurotoxicity of thimerosal. The results were eye-opening. For example, 50 nanomolar thimerosal causes less than 5% neuron death within the first three hours incubation and 1 micromolar testosterone causes no significant death within this time frame. However, mix these two together and 100% neuron death was observed at the earliest time point checked. This represents a severe enhancement of thimerosal toxicity."