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Causes of gender incongruence

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The etiology of transsexualism, meaning the cause or causes of transsexualism, is an area of interest for many transsexual people, physicians, psychologists, other mental health professionals, and family members and friends of transsexual people. Currently, there is no scientifically proven cause of transsexualism.[citation needed]. For many years, many people [who?] assumed that transsexualism was a psychological/emotional disorder caused by psychological factors. More recently, research has suggested that the cause of transsexualism may be rooted in biology, and a segment of the medical profession has come to view transsexualism as a physiological condition rather than a psychological one.[1][2][dead link][3]

Possible physical causes

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Harry Benjamin wrote, "Summarizing my impression, I would like to repeat here what I said in my first lecture on the subject more than 10 years ago: Our genetic and endocrine equipment constitutes either an unresponsive [or] fertile soil on which the wrong conditional and a psychic trauma can grow and develop into such a basic conflict that subsequently a deviation like transsexualism can result."[4]

One study suggests that transsexualism is based in structural and neurochemical similarities between the brains of transsexual people and brains typical of their gender identity [2]. A second study has since replicated the results of the first study and included controls to help eliminate many of the alleged flaws, particularly the study included two individuals who had cross-gender hormone secreting cancers which were significant enough to have caused significant cross-gender development in both individuals, without causing brain structure variation[3].

As of December 2006, a new study funded by Ferring Pharmaceuticals was presented at the International Paediatric Endocrinology Symposium in Paris. This study finds that prior to hormone replacement therapy, transsexual people have brain mass ratios of their birth sex. According to this study, a transsexual person's brain restructures itself to become typically structured for the individual's target sex with the administration of hormone therapy [5].

A study found a correlation between digit ratio and male-to-female transsexualism. Male-to-female transsexual people were found to have a higher digit ratio than control males, but one that was comparable to control females. Because digit ratio is known to be directly related to prenatal hormone exposure, this tends to support theories linking such to male-to-female transsexualism.[6]

Studies in Sweden suggest that transsexuality is associated with cross-gendered specific hypothalamic circuits, possibly as a consequence of a variant neuronal differentiation.[7]

Experiments in Germany using fMRI has shown that Transsexual women have patterns of brain activity closely corresponding to female norms when performing tasks that are known to show sex-differentiation in that area.[8](German)[9](German)

Transsexuality may have a genetic component, research published in 2008 suggests.[10]

"Curing" transsexualism

In 1972, the American Medical Association Committee on Human Sexuality published the medical opinion that psychotherapy was generally ineffective for transsexual adults. [11]

See also

References

  1. ^ Definition and synopsis of the etiology of adult gender identity disorder multiple authors
  2. ^ a b Zhou, Jiang-Ning (2 November 1995). "A Sex Difference in the Human Brain and its Relation to Transsexuality". Nature. 37: 68–70. doi:10.1038/378068a0. Retrieved 2007-02-25. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ a b Kruijver, Frank P. M. (2000). "Male-to-Female Transsexuals Have Female Neuron Numbers in a Limbic Nucleus". Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. 85 (5): 2034–2041. doi:10.1126. Retrieved 2007-02-25. {{cite journal}}: Check |doi= value (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ Benjamin, H. (1966). The transsexual phenomenon. New York: Julian Press, page 85.
  5. ^ Hulshoff, Cohen-Kettenis; et al. (2006). "Changing you sex changes your brain: influences of testosterone and estrogen on adult human brain structure". European Journal of Endocrinology. 155 (155): 107–114. doi:10.1530/eje.1.02248. ISSN 0804-4643. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help); Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  6. ^ Schneider, Harald J. (2006). "Typical female 2nd-4th finger length (2D:4D) ratios in male-to-female transsexuals-possible implications for prenatal androgen exposure". International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology. 31 (2). Elsevier, Oxford, UK: 265–269. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2005.07.005. ISSN 0306-4530 PMID 16140461. Retrieved 2007-02-25. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ Male-to-Female Transsexuals Show Sex-Atypical Hypothalamus Activation When Smelling Odorous Steroids, Berglund H., Lindström P., Dhejne-Helmy C. and Savic I.
  8. ^ Geschlechtsspezifische Differenzen der Hirnaktivitaet in der fMRT bei Normalprobanden im Vergleich mit transsexuellen Probanden, Krause E.R. Universität Duisburg-Essen
  9. ^ fMRT zur Diagnose bei Transsexualität geprüft Ärzte Zeitung, 30.05.2006
  10. ^ Transsexual gene link identified BBC News 26 October 2008 (accessed 26 October 2008)
  11. ^ Human Sexuality; The American Medical Association Committee on Human Sexuality; Chicago, 1972
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