By Joanne Silver.
http://www.transformation.co.uk/brainsex.html
How often have you seen newspaper reports which place drug addicts, prostitutes and transvestites together in a group as though they were all common criminals? How many TVs do you think cross dress secretly in constant fear of discovery, as though they were committing some sort of sin?
Those of us who have this compulsion to put on make-up, frilly undies, and dresses know that it is not a criminal act, a sin, the result of thinking bad thoughts, reading pornography or sheer perversity. It is something in our brains and, for most of us, has been there for almost as long as we can remember.
To us transvestites it is as natural as being left or right handed and is the result of something that happened before it was even possible for us to be aware of our sexuality.
Of course you may think that I, like many transvestites, would claim that it was not our fault simply to assuage my guilt. But the view of transvestism and transsexualism I wish to put forward is based on considerable research done by many doctors.
Differences
I think that it is now common knowledge that all of us start by being female. Our mothers can only produce female eggs and it is the father's sperm that decides whether the baby will be a boy or a girl.
If the baby is to be a boy then at six weeks a massive dose of male hormones will be produced. This will cause the baby to form male organs rather than female ones. All the basic differences betweenmen and women are laid down at this time, many of which do not fully develop until a further surge of hormones is produced at puberty.
Most important of all is the brain. All babies have a female brain and the amount of hormone required to turn the brain into a male one is critical. SHould this fail then the child's brain will naturally develop as female, even though the body may be male, and once developed nothing will alter it.
There are considerable differences between the male ond female brain. For instance, when considering a problem a woman will tend to use both sides of her brain while a man will tend to use only one. So what to a man looks simple, a woman will see further complications and different solutions.
The German doctor, Gunter Dorner, discovered that there were a higher than normal number of homosexual men born to women who were in East Germany and pregnant at the end of the last war. It is known that tension in pregnant women reduces the amount of testosterone, the main male hormone, and the knowledge that the Russian army was advancing towards you would create considerable tension.
Behaviour
From these studies and other research Dr Gunter, with others, developed a theory about the development of a baby's brain while it is in the womb. He decided that the sexual characteristics of the brain develop in stages.
First, the sex centre. This controls the development of the physical sexual characteristics.
The second stage he called the mating centre. This controls the sexual behaviour of the person and is located in a part of the brain that we all have, but which is more highly developed in women and homosexuals.
The third stage he called the gender centre, which controls our general sexual behaviour.
A failure in the supply of the male hormone or an extra dose of the female hormone, oestrogen, at any one of these stages will cause the brain to develop in a feminine way for that particular stage.
Since the female does not rely on male hormones to develop, the chances of anything going wrong are far less. This accounts for the lower incidence of transvestism and transsexualism in women. Dorner's theory will explain how you can get feminine men who are rampant heterosexuals or masculine men who are passive homosexuals.
The true transvestite who finds dressing in female clothes a relaxing and satisfying experience would have normal dewvelopment in the first two parts of the brain's sexual centres, the sex centre and the mating centre, but a hormonal imbalancw during the development of the third part, the gender identity centre.
Two things must be made clear at this stage. One is that this is not the only theory. There are others, but most modern ones follow the same general theme. Secondly, we are not talking about fetish transvestism, which like all other fetishes has its roots in the early development of sexuality after birth.
Fetish transvestites can get immediate sexual satisfaction from wearing female clothes. They do not necessarily feel feminine although they may imagine they are women during the actual moment of sexual activity. This is no different to other fetishes such as rubber, shoes, silk, fur, or more commonly, the female breast.
What complicates the situation is that the person who is born as a transvestite, homosexual or transsexual can also be subjected to fetish influences during their sexual development. Particularly in the case of boys who may be dressed or treated as girls just because they exhibit feminine behaviour.
In the 1960s and 70s there was a lot of attention given to the effects of social anvironment on gender identity. It was, and still is, claimed by some practitioners that that girls are feminine in their behaviour because that is how they were brought up, and similarly for boys.
A famous case was reported in Time magazine in 1973. An American couple had twin boys. While circumcision was taking place one of the babies was castrated in error. It was decided that he should be brought up as a girl and given an artificial vagina and female hormones.
Feminists
The treatment had a significant measure of success and although subsequent evidence is that the subject has some psychological problems, it does have something to tell us about the post-natal development of gender identification. Many feminists hailed this case as proof that women were forced into their roles by training rather than genetic influences.
This was before the Babilonia case came to light. This family from the Dominican Republic inherited a gene along with 23 related families from an ancestor some 130 years ago. The effect of this gene was to suppress the male genitalia and give the baby the appearance of a girl, including a vagina.
The eldest of the ten children to be born to the Babilonias was Prudencio. Being the eldest and clearly a girl she helped her mother with the housework and child rearing, did not mix with the village boys or indulge in any typical male behaviour.
At the age of twelve the clitoris developed into a penis, the testicles descended into what had been the lips of the vagina, and Prudencio changed into a male. Like his younger sister Matilda he is now a brawny, muscular man. He is sexually potent and lives with his wife in the United States.
Puberty
Technically, what happened was that in the womb, while Prudencio's brain developed normally his body was unable to make the particular hormone that shapes the male genitalia and body shape. So in it's absence, although he was in all other respects male, his body developed as a female until puberty when the surge of testosterone completed the job.
The importance of the Bablionia family for the study of gender identity is that although Prudencio was totally subjected to a female upbringing his male brain was unaffected and he has adjusted to being a man without any problems. His father's evidence was that as soon as he reached puberty he found himself a girlfriend.
We have in England a similar significant case. Mrs Went is a housewife with adopted children. When she failed to menstruate or grow pubic hair she went for a medical examination. It was discovered that she was male and her abdoman contained testes rather than ovaries, but that she was totally insensitive to the male hormone testosterone. Not only did her body develop as a female, but also her brain.
There was also the case of Mr Blackwell, a Malawian. He is one of the hundred or so recorded hermaphrodites but with a male brain. He had both penis and vagina.
When at puberty he developed two large breasts he had them removed and his vagina surgically sewn up so that he could continue his life as a man.
Imbalances of hormones in pregnancy can occur in all sorts of ways, and very often they have no noticeable effect. In the 1950s and 60s injections of hormones were used to alleviate some of the problems of pregnant women. While the treatments were successful in that regard, other complications started to appear.
Pregnant
Some American doctors followed up these cases when the children were teenagers. Jim was typical of the group. His mother was treated with a female hormone while she was pregnant with him. He has no interest in sport and considers himself to be unpopular. His mother says the other boys called him a sissy. He had no heterosexual experiences but says he has had some homosexual ones.
His elder brother, Larry, was brought up in the same environment. He is interested in all sorts of sports and is very assertive. No hormone treatment was used while the mother was pregnant with Larry. The investigation indicated that the hormones had been given at a critical stage in Jim's prenatal development.
The inescable conclusion from this research is that while it may or may not be possible to control or cure the abnormality of a fetish condition, there can be no 'cure' for the true transvestite as his condition is totally normal for him.
Attempts have been made in the past, but not only were they doomed to failure, they could and did do considerable psychological damage.
by Carl W. Bushong, PhD, LMFT
Carl W. Bushong, Ph.D., LMFT
By J.-N. Zhou, M.A. Hofman, L.J. Gooren and D.F. Swaab
XVI Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association Symposium
17 - 21 August 1999, London
Reflections on "Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment" 1969 -1999
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Gender Transpositions: The Brain Has Not Followed Other Markers of Sexual Differentiation?
Gooren, Louis J.G. Endocrinology, Free University Hospital, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Traditionally gender transpositions have been conceptualized as purely psychological phenomena, and indeed there is no evidence that gender transpositions can be explained by variations in chromosomal patterns, or by gonadal, genital or hormonal anomalies. Very recent research on brains of male-to-female transsexuals demonstrated that one of the brain nuclei that is sex-dimorphic in the human, the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, shows all characteristics of female differentiation. This finding may lead to a concept of gender transpositions as a state of being, wherein the sexual differentiation of the brain (which in mammals also undergoes sexual differentiation) is not consistent with the other variables of sex, such as chromosomal pattern, nature of the gonad and nature of internal/external gonads.
The brain undergoes a sexual differentiation process. In other words: sexual differentiation is not completed with the differentiation of the external genitalia into either male or female. The sexual differentiation of the brain can be demonstrated neuroanatomically or in psychological function tests. In lower mammals it expresses itself in sex-dimorphic sexual behavior but also in sex-dimorphic non-sexual behaviors (such as aggression, defense of territory, and caring for the young). This process has been termed the organization, the "wiring" of the brain, to prepare it for future sexual/reproductive and non-sexual behavior in agreement with the gonadal/genital status. Following exposure of the brain to androgens, male and female rat brains differ in their neuroanatomical structure. Sex differences in size and shape of certain nuclei in the hypothalamus have been described in the human. One of the sex-dimorphic nuclei becomes differentiated not earlier than between the ages of two to four. The time of differentiation is not known for other sex dimorphic nuclei. Nor is the mechanism subserving sexual differentiation of the human brain known, whether it is hormonally (co)determined or not. From clinical observations in patients with an intersex condition or cross-sex hormone exposure during pregnancy, the a priori evidence for solely hormonal determination is not strong. Postnatal rearing is in all likelihood a significant factor in the development of gender identity/role; this is no longer irreconcilable with the existence of a biological substrate of gender identity since one�s life history is a factor in shaping brain anatomy/function. If it becomes accepted that humans also undergo a differentiation of the brain as an integral part of the process of becoming man or woman, gender transpositions could be conceptualized as a state wherein sexual differentiation of the brain has not followed the course set by the chromosomes, the gonad and the genitalia, but has crossed over to the course of development of the other sex.
This finding of a biological index of a female brain differentiation of male-to-female transsexuals could be a conceptual turning point in the approach of gender transpositions.
0621.htm
Hormone Levels Affect Structure Of Adult Brain
NEW YORK, Jun 21 (Reuters Health) -- A study in rats suggests that fluctuations in circulating levels of sex hormones during adulthood may play a role in structural differences between male and female brains, report US researchers.
Previous reports suggested that structural differences in the brains of men and women, heterosexual and homosexual men, and male-to-female transsexuals occur early in brain development.
But a research team from the University of California, Berkeley, showed that the size of a brain region involved in sexual arousal, the medial amygdala, that is up to 80% larger in male rats than females can be changed by manipulating levels of the male sex hormone testosterone.
The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that the adult brain is more malleable than previously thought.
In one part of the study, adult male rats were castrated. Castration or the removal of one or both testicles diminishes testosterone circulation. Within 4 weeks, the volume of their medial amygdala shrunk to the size found in females. When females were given supplements of testosterone, their medial amygdala grew to be as large as that found in normal males, the study found.
"The findings are a demonstration that a sexual (change) in a brain region could be due to sex differences in circulating hormones, not something established at birth," study author Dr. S. Marc Breedlove, told Reuters Health. Breedlove conducted the study with Bradley M. Cooke and Golnaz Tabibnia.
"When we read reports of sex differences in the structure of the human brain, we must take seriously the possibility that it may be caused by sex differences in circulating hormones," he said. "We can't assume that it was present at birth."
Additionally, "we should remember that steroid hormone treatments, such as anabolic steroids taken by athletes, hormone replacement therapies taken by postmenopausal women, may have consequences for the brain. They may be positive consequences or negative, but they should be considered," Breedlove said.
In an editorial accompanying the new study, Bruce S. McEwen of Rockefeller University in New York writes that the new study "highlights the dynamic nature of the mature nervous system in its ability to change reversibly in response to circulating hormones. Thus, when a sex difference is reported in the structure of the brain, the role of adult hormone secretion must be considered."
Breedlove's study was supported by the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
SOURCE: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 1999;96:7128-7130, 7538-7540.
http://www.glsenco.org/Educators/Counselors/transgender_1.htm
What causes transsexualism?
excerpted from �Transsexualism: A Primer,�
2nd edition, August 1996
Re-published by The Looking Glass Society, www.looking-glass.greenend.org.uk
It is now accepted by all reputable professionals in the field that transsexualism stems from a physiological cause, and is in no way a mental illness, perversion or �lifestyle choice.� The consensus of opinion is that gender identity is determined before birth and is unchangeable thereafter.
All human foetuses start off in a female configuration, and in the absence of biochemical instructions to the contrary, will develop into baby girls�irrespective of their chromosomal sex. This �female by default� development is overridden in normal male foetuses by a complex sequence of hormonal processes. It starts about six weeks after conception, when the SRY gene on the Y chromosome causes a weak male hormone precursor to be secreted.
This causes the foetal gonads to differentiate into testes instead of ovaries. Some weeks later, the primitive testes start working, and secrete a large dose of testosterone (the principal male hormone), which causes the foetal brain to differentiate into the male pattern. It is at this point that the brain structure responsible for gender identity, as well as all the other well-known (and measurable) brain differences between men and women, is laid down.
Transsexualism is caused by that second burst of hormones failing to happen, or only happening very weakly. . . There are a number of possible reasons for this failure; in some cases, the genitals do not develop normally, and therefore do not manage to secrete testosterone on schedule to alter the brain. This is likely to produce a certain degree of physical intersex in the infant as well as transsexualism. Most transsexuals, however, are not obviously intersexed, so subtler causes must be involved.
Overall, the condition seems to have three possible causes:
1. Chromosomes: . . . A few, but by no means all, transsexuals have a nonstandard karyotype, leading to hormonal �confusion� during foetal development.
2. Chemicals: some drugs that were administered to pregnant women (most notoriously diethylstilboestrol), or oral contraceptives unknowingly taken after conception, frequently caused transsexual offspring by disrupting the hormone processes. There is also increasing evidence that some pollutants can have the same effect�many man-made chemicals are known to mimic oestrogen and/or disrupt androgen receptors.
3. Random events: sometimes, the biochemistry simply fails to work properly. . . Perhaps the expectant mother is anaemic or the foetus is undernourished for some reason, or maybe maternal hormones cross the placenta in sufficient quantity to disrupt foetal development. . . .
. . . Neither upbringing nor cultural influences can change the pre-natal wiring of one�s brain. . . . Once the relevant stage of pregnancy has passed, there is no way that the foetus�s brain-sex (and hence gender) can be altered: postnatally, hormones can alter the body, but the brain remains forever as it was born. This is why it is impossible to change a transsexual�s gender to match their natal sex. It may seem strange to change someone�s body-sex to match their gender, but it is the only treatment possible. . . . So gender reassignment (�sex-change�) is the only successful way of treating transsexuals.
Sexual Differentiation
A Tampa Gender Identity Program (TGIP) Abstract
Pascual Bidot, M.D., F.A.C.E.
The human embryo has the potential to develop as either a male or female. In the absence of the chromosome, gonadal and genital differentiation proceeds along female lines with no proven role for fetal or maternal hormones in this process. In the presence of chromosomes (short arm, known as the sex determinant region of the chromosome), the embryo and bipotential gonad differentiate into a teste. Glycoprotein known as a mullerian inhibitory hormone induces the growth of the mullerian duct primordia which will otherwise form the uterus and fallopian tubes in the upper 2/3 of the vagina. The testosterone induces development of the wolffian duct into the epididymis, vas deferens, and seminal vesicle. The Dehydrotestosterone induces development of the penis, scrotal sac, and prostate. The hormonal difference between male and female is a quantitative phenomenon not a qualitative phenomenon. The male makes a lot more testosterone, converting some fraction to estradiol. The female makes much less testosterone, but converts a much larger fraction to estrogen. The numerous tissues such as liver, brain, and especially muscle and fat (more often during puberty in females) are very important in sexual development and differentiation, in part related to the aromatase. These hormones have profound somatic effects, not only controlled by genetic factors but also changes of activity of the aromatase in organs such as the placenta, contributing in the expression of breast tissue. Especially in females, the placenta plays a major role in producing placental estrogen needed to offset the fetal excess of androgens from the adrenal gland.
The development of Neuroendocrinology has determined the importance of the LHRH in sexual differentiation (pulsated secretion of the hypothalamic hormones) suppressed during fetal life. The male pituitary gland characteristically secretes both FSH and LH in a pulsatile, but a relatively constant and sustained manner in which has been called a tonic release, where in the adult female the pulsated secretion of FSH and LH is cyclic. The concept of a male pattern imprinted on sex centers of the hypothalamus (usually by male testosterone on the brain, not dependent on dehydrotestosterone), in different species, suggests sexually that the morphic nucleus in the preoptic area of the brain is perhaps not so much regulated by the amount of testosterone, but also by the levels of aromatization of testosterone to estradiol in the central nervous system. Studies of multiple genetic disorders clearly state and provide strong evidence that gender identity is not coded primarily by sexual chromosomes or gonadal steroids. The gender identity (18 to 30 months) is formed early in the postnatal years. Recent studies in males with defects in estrogen receptors in humans prove also the importance in male maturation in bones for normal growth and development.
The Transgender Community
By Jerimarie Liesegang, Ph.D.
Definition�
Of course, should we not begin with a definition of Transgender? However by doing so we immediately subscribe to the process of defining and categorizing an individual or group. Society already does this by classifying ones sex into the discrete categories of female or male. Literally, within minutes of ones birth their primary sexual characteristics are ascertained and from that moment on they are mandated to live and present the sex with which they have been assigned. You may ask, what if someone is born intersexed? As we well know, reassignment surgery is done quickly so that society can place this child into its mandated category. However, as many intersexed individuals realize with time, this assignment is both arbitrary and destructive.
The following selected statistics are drawn from the work of Dr. Fausto-Sterling's and her colleagues [these statistics are approximations]
Not XX and not XY
one in 1,666 births
Klinefelter (XXY)
one in 1,000 births
Total number of people whose bodies differ from standard male or female
one in 100 births
Total number of people receiving surgery to "normalize" genital appearance
one or two in 1,000 births
And what about Gender? Can one exhibit female [or male] primary sexual characteristics and yet desire to present, be and live as the �opposite gender�? Of course, transsexuals are everyday examples of this �dichotomy�. In fact, with the advancement of medical diagnostic techniques researchers are finding that sexes are different because their brains are different. The brain, the chief administrative and emotional organ of life, is differently constructed in men and in women; it processes information in a different way, which results in different perceptions, priorities and behavior.
I am not attempting to define Transgender, what I am attempting to do is to have you think out of the box when it comes to sex and gender assignments. Sex and gender are NOT binary values of female or male though rather a spectrum ranging from female to male. And with that said, is it so hard to believe or understand that someone may be incorrectly assigned by society as either a male or female and instead lie somewhere in between? The term Two Spirit in the Native American culture shows they realized and incorporated this individual into their society. Two-Spirit people are born one sex, and end up fulfilling the roles assigned to both sexes.
Continuum�
With this said, we are able to proceed further in understanding the Transgender community. Clearly, individuals may lie on this gender spectrum to varying degrees. There are those who enjoy being masculine [or feminine] yet live as females [or males]. These individuals are typically termed �transvestites�, cross-dressers or simply transgender. There are others termed Transsexuals who never identified to their assigned male or female roles [and typically lacked the �assigned� brain sex] and so lie on the extreme of this continuum. These individuals have a compelling need to live, present, exist and be opposite from the sex/gender role assigned at birth.
Medical Condition�
Twenty-seven years after the American Psychiatric Association (APA) voted to delete homosexuality as a mental disorder, the diagnostic categories "transvestic fetishism" (TF) and "gender identity disorder" (GID) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, continue to raise questions of consistency, validity, and fairness. Recent revisions of the DSM have made these diagnostic categories increasingly ambiguous, conflicted and over inclusive. They reinforce false, negative stereotypes of gender variant people and at the same time fail to legitimize the medical necessity of sex reassignment surgeries (SRS) and procedures for transsexuals who urgently need them. The result is that a widening segment of gender non-conforming youth and adults are potentially subject to diagnosis of psychosexual disorder, stigma and loss of civil liberty. In addition, the transgender community is subjugated to the rules and laws dictated by the medical profession.
Acceptance�
For obvious reasons a majority of the transgender community live their desired roles in the closet. The simple reason is that whenever a transgender person �comes out� they are ridiculed, harassed, isolated, unemployed and possibly injured or killed. Even among the LGB community the transgender community exists on the fringe and rarely accepted. How many times have you heard: Why should we include the �T� in LGBT. Just ask Silvia Rivera who threw the second Molotov cocktail at Stonewall so many years ago. She, a transsexual, helped initiate the so-called �gay revolution� yet was brushed aside by the same community who leveraged her courage and determination to be free, out and safe.
Personal Experience�
From my personal experiences, I can tell you when I decided to transition my adopted children became objects of ridicule by their friends, my business clients stopped doing business with me, I eventually lost access and visitation to my children, my birth family disowned me, my financial situation deteriorated, I faced ridicule every single day I would walk among society, I incurred significant expenses to meet the medical communities requirements for a transitioning transsexual, etc, etc, etc. Transitioning devasted my life - however the desire to transition was so strong and necessary that even though I saw everything crumbling around me I continued on my transition. And if given the option to do this again my answer would be quick and without question � Yes!! The reason is found in the simple word dysphoria in the DSM categorization for gender identity dysphoria. I had lived a life of deceit, lies, confusion, anxiety and my transition liberated me to truly be the person my brain continually told me to be � even if my body and society told me otherwise.
Why�
You may ask: Why did I write this article? My reasons are simple and selfish. As a visibly out and active transsexual I have found it imperative to educate every person I encounter that a transsexual or transgender person is NOT that freak of ridicule you see on television, though rather a warm, caring, sensitive, hurting, loving individual no different then any other person. I walk proudly in this world and I will never let society dictate my sex/gender no matter how hard they attempt to subjugate me.
