Exposure to clinically relevant doses of glucocorticoids during fetal life increases blood pressure in adult male and female sheep. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of prenatal exposure to betamethasone at 80-81 days of gestation on renal function in ewes and rams at 1.5 years of age. In prenatal betamethasone exposed males, compared to the vehicle exposed animals, basal glomerular filtration rate (GFR) (1.93 ± 0.08 vs. 2.27 ± 0.10 ml/min/kg BW) and the ability to excrete an acute Na load (37.1 ± 4.4% vs. 53.7 ± 9.7% were reduced. (p<0.03 and p=0.03, respectively). In contrast, prenatal betamethasone exposure had no effect on basal GFR, Na excretion or the percent of the Na load excreted during the experiment in females. Systemic infusions of angiotensin-(1-7) at 9 ng/min/kg for 2 hours had minimal effects on basal GFR, renal plasma flow and Na excretion in males, but increased Na excretion in females. However, the percent of Na load excreted during Ang-(1-7) infusion did not change in prenatal betamethasone exposed females (113.1 ± 14.2% vs. 98.1 ± 12.2%) compared to the significant increase in vehicle females (139.2 ± 22.3% vs. 92.2 ± 7.5%) (p=0.01). The data indicate that antenatal betamethasone exposure produces gender specific alternations in renal function and thus suggest that different mechanisms underlie the antenatal steroid-induced elevations in blood pressure in male and female offspring.