GenderLife Forum: The Information Exchange

The article is over three years old and the research probably even older. It's a nice point to bring up in a debate with a "bad upbringing" etiology fan, but beyond that I'd not worry about this one too much. Down the road, who can say?

I know here in Melbourne Australia a few of us had been requested to take part in a Gene study. I love the idea that there will be a definite gene to Define us without the guesswork.

If in the process this transsexualism thingy can be "bred out" of the human gene pool that is surely a good thing. Who would wish what we go through on another human being?

Transsexualism is NOT a Lifestyle choice.

I read the original paper some years ago - it was mildly interesting as they did show a correlation between unusual ER-beta-2, aromatase encoding sequence and AR, and transsexuality. The method they used, IIRC, was that they weighted the proteins and found then that in trans women the weights were markedly different (in kilodaltons) from the control group. I think it was something like 28 trans women out of 30 showed these differences. The original paper shouldn't be too hard to come by, and I think it was written in English - but I could be wrong since I'm writing this off the top of my head. Could've been in Swedish, too.

Erm, right. It's available to the public. See for yourself: Genes and Transsexualism

So it is more or less official Male to Female Transsexuals are "Genetically Defective". It is Just the "why?" now. So may be because the advent of the use of many types of Plastic products in our world? A compound found in some plastics "Mimics" Estrogen.

I think it"s a random event that happens at a critical point during the pregnancy.Theres mutations that happen in nature all the time.It could be a combination of a certain gene defect combined with a hormonal imbalance in the mother,and it just happens.I know for a fact that my mother was under a lot of stress during the time I was developing,and stress can upset the hormonal balance considerably from what I've read.Those are my thoughts on this topic.Noboby knows for sure at this point anyhow,and until that time comes it's all just personal theories.

I believe there are a multitude of factors involved. One is genetic, as being discussed in this thread. The genetics are probably much more complicated than straight Mendelian inheritance. There is a phenomenom known as incomplete penetrance, which means a trait carried as a gene will not necessarily manifest in the individual. This means one member of a pair of identical twins will manifest the trait, but not the other. Of course, one would expect to see a higher incidence of concordance between the twins, than normal random chance.

Also, the hormonal environment in the womb may influence gender identity. Androgen blockers (such as cyproterone acetate), administered during brain development, have been shown to drastically alter the sexual behavior of male animals, such as rats and mice. Specifically, the male rats or mice will show female sexual behavior, exhibiting lordosis in response to the advances of another male rat. The most logical conclusion is: The action of testosterone, acting on the fetal brain, is essential for the behavior patterns to masculinize.

If we are to examine the case of women, with androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS), we will see confirmation of this hypothesis. Women with AIS are XY, but they do not respond to testoterone because of an anomaly in the Androgen Receptor (AR) on the cell wall. The condition means testerone will not cross the cell membrane. Hence, the testosterone will not act on cell development and metabolism. These women do identify as female and behave like females. It is plausible to conclude that brain development is what determines gender identity, and brain development is determined by the action, or lack of action, by testerone and its metabolites.

The case of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) also tends to confirm the hypothesis. Some girls are born with CAH, because of an anomaly in the genes affecting the metabolism of the adrenal gland. The result is the adrenal glands produce large quantities of androgens. The result is a masculinization of the girls'behavior. Also, when these girls reach adulthood, they have about a 50% chance of being lesbian. So, we can also infer that the action, or lack of action, of testosterone on the fetus, significant factor in the development of sexual orientation as well as general sexual behavior.

That's a perfectly reasonable guess, but it's not a correct guess.

I regard the terms "men" and "women" as referring to assigned sex (the sex on paperwork).

And I regard the choosing of which sex to put on the paperwork to be a medical matter.

And I believe the purpose of medicine is to serve the health of the patient in the patients best interest.

And I believe that transwomen's best interests are served when they are given an assigned sex of woman.

And I believe that when a medical mistake is made, even if it is unforeseeable and unavoidable, nonetheless, all that is needed to justify promptly correcting the correctable mistake, is a mere realization that a mistake has occurred.

And that therefore transwomen should be assigned women before hormones and surgery.

And that transwomen, being women, have no cross-gender identity.

And having no cross-gender identity they have neither GID nor gender dysphoria.

And having no gender dysphoria the HBIGDA SOC does not apply to them.

And since the HBIGDA SOC cannot apply, they should be treated the same as non-transwomen who have no vaginas and insufficient breasts (and yes they do exist).

And agreeing with each step above and yet still refuting the conclusion is dishonest, and many medical practitioner who deal with transfolks are, in this way, dishonest.

And if the research is reported accurately it is a load of nonsense.

And if it is not reported accurately we can say nothing useful about it.

Does this mean that before governments started recording births on official documents there were no men or women? Of course not. And after we got to that point, sex was officially assigned by the delivering MD by a glance at the genitals. This is why the surgery that reconfigures the genitals to match the personal psychological (or neurological) sex is most properly called Sex Reassignment Surgery, because it changes the genitals upon which the legal sex was assigned in the first place.

P.S. This is also why I find it incorrect to call SRS, "Gender" Reassignment Surgery. When Toby Meltzer did my vaginoplasty, he changed my anatomical sex, not my gender. My gender stayed what it was, female; it was not reassigned. My legal sex was reassigned. Make sense?

Personally I seldom think about it and don't care what it is called. I have been attacked for calling surgeries cosmetic so these days I just figure I'd rather let everyone do their own labeling. Call it pisser if ya want (penile inversion surgery so everyone relaxes).