Do Your Homework, Dr. Ablow

[Jamie D]

Do Your Homework, Dr. Ablow: 15 studies showing a biological origin of gender dysphoria

Huffington Post: The Blog | Brynn Tannehill

Recently, Dr. Keith Ablow of the Fox News Medical A-Team dismissed any biological origins of gender dysphoria, stating:

"I don't believe we have definitive data (although many psychiatrists with very impressive credentials, who seem to mean well, assert that we do) that any male or female soul has ever in the history of the world been born into the wrong anatomic gender.

Let me put that more clearly: I am not convinced by any science I can find that people with definitively male DNA and definitively male anatomy can actually be locked in a cruel joke of nature because they are actually
female."

One might ask, "So what sort of evidence is there that being transgender has some sort of biological origin, that indeed someone can be wired to be one gender, and physically another?"

Short answer: Lots. Here are 15 studies showing a biological origin of gender dysphoria....

Full blog at link above

Related story here: https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,157806.0.html

[gennee]

Great post, Jamie. Dr. Ablow won't do that because he's married to belief system, even if it's proven wrong. People like him won't don't because their egos won't allow it. Another factor is that he's getting paid handsomely from FOX, a collection of people who have it wrong ALL the time.

[Jill F]

I'm sure this clown still thinks shock treatment and lobotomies are effective treatments for transfolk and that we were all screwed up my our mothers.

*edited for language -  what can I say, I can't stand this quack.

[Jamie D]

As I explained in the other linked topic, Dr. Ablow was trained at Johns Hopkins in the 1980s.  It had to be the most anti-TS med school in the country.

[thevaliantx]

Then.....Dr Ablow......what would explain my first cousin being an FtM?  What about me, an MtF?  What would you say about my 8 year old son who clearly is indifferent to either girl or boy things?

[justjournalhonestly]

I don't even know it matters, because let's just play devil's advocate for a moment and say this social thug is right. How does it explain that as brilliant as they seem to think they are, that they fail to "cure" anyone? All they do is try to brainwash either based on religious beliefs or hyper masculine insecurities. Then, like a lemming (such as me, and oh do I feel so guilty now for having let it happen), we walk around denying our real self identity, basically torturing ourselves as we reinforce this quackery as we just beg and/or pray to die.

So if we do accept this social rule based belief by denying science, it is still utterly flawed. He says something as he proves nothing, and Fox and it's viewers tend to eat this crap up. (i.e. my dad who get this, believes I took steroids when I used to power lift which I never did, but I did use whey protein and for a few weeks creatine once. He says it is these steroids I am lying about taking that messed me up. Ha, then some how retroactively into my childhood. Not to mention all the pro athletes that are now transitioning to become congruent with themselves, I mean the Hall of Fame's are full of them!)

Yea, ignorance isn't illegal, but it is harder to cure than gender dysphoria.

[Hikari]

What is worrisome about this is that it could cause real harm with parents who view Fox news getting some reinforcement to their sincere desire that their child is "just going thru a phase". The problem is, 15 sources that say what they don't want to hear won't mean anything if they can latch on to one source that does say what they want to hear.

This guy really ought to be blacklisted by the medical community for openly doing harm. Doctors are not supposed to harm people.

[justjournalhonestly]

You make GREAT points Hikari.

[VeryGnawty]

I don't believe we have definitive data (although many psychiatrists with very impressive credentials, who seem to mean well, assert that we do) that any male or female soul has ever in the history of the world been born into the wrong anatomic gender.

Not sure you can use the terms "definitive data" and "soul" in the same sentence there, Dr. Ablow.  That would be like claiming that nobody can time travel because nobody has found or invented a flux capacitor.

Of course you don't have definitive data, because the existence of a soul has not been evident in fields of scientific research.  While many people (perhaps even most people) believe that a soul exists, that doesn't really have anything to do with transsexualism.  Someone's soul being in the wrong body is only one of MANY explanations for what may cause transsexualism.

Claiming that people can't be trapped in the wrong body because of lack of evidence for souls is like claiming that you've won a war because you have wounded a single soldier.  Meanwhile, the army of explanations for transsexualism are waiting for you to explain why you picked on one of their weakest when there are much more scientifically grounded theories for what causes transsexualism.

Mr. Ablow mentions the word science, but immediately jumps to one of the weakest theories scientifically to attack transsexualism.  That's like saying that you are good at basketball because you can score more points than a handicapped kid in a wheelchair.  Perhaps the reason that Mr. Ablow (I might physically vomit if I have to call him "Doctor" again) can't find any science behind transsexualism is because he's not actually looking at the science.

[Sephirah]

I think the most important part of his remarks are the words "I don't believe." and "I am not convinced..."

They remind me of the old adage which goes along the lines of:

"To the skeptic, no proof is sufficient. To the believer, no proof is necessary."

If someone is unwilling to accept something, within their own personal belief framework, then no amount of evidence to the contrary will do any good. It's not homework Dr. Ablow needs to do as much as it is opening his mind to other possibilities beyond his own perceptions and experience.

[Missy~rmdlm]

Dr Ablow is one paid blow hard...who doesn't have his credentials up to date. I have an entire team of doctors that agree with me right here in conservative-ville US. Whatever.

[justjournalhonestly]

I have an entire team of doctors that agree with me right here in conservative-ville US. Whatever.

I loved this line, and read it as "A blow me Ablow!"

We all know there is little hope for this guy to ever even try to be honest about how he looks at this, and yet he gets TV time affecting the zombie masses who merely rinse and repeat his rhetoric. Let's just be glad they are losing their hold on the civilized world.

[Arch]

Claiming that people can't be trapped in the wrong body because of lack of evidence for souls is like claiming that you've won a war because you have wounded a single soldier. 

To me, it's more like standing in a field and saying that he won the war because, look, there isn't a single enemy soldier in sight.

[Arch]

They remind me of the old adage which goes along the lines of:

"To the skeptic, no proof is sufficient. To the believer, no proof is necessary."

If someone is unwilling to accept something, within their own personal belief framework, then no amount of evidence to the contrary will do any good. It's not homework Dr. Ablow needs to do as much as it is opening his mind to other possibilities beyond his own perceptions and experience.

In my opinion, skepticism is not a belief system and is not akin to a religious belief. It's essentially the process through which one arrives at empirically-based, reasoned decisions about what to believe and what not to believe. To label oneself a skeptic but then to never investigate further does disservice to the label. In my experience, I've seen this form of "skepticism" practiced only by smug, unthinking idiots.

I used to be skeptical about the death penalty. It doesn't matter which side of the issue I was on. What matters is that I used my skepticism to learn more about the issue, and I eventually arrived at a position based more on reason and evidence and not just my gut feeling. Even now, my position is subject to change as more data are available to me.

[thevaliantx]

My family wouldn't learn a thing from that article, if you catch my drift

[Missy~rmdlm]

My family wouldn't learn a thing from that article, if you catch my drift

So give them another fox news source other than Ablow.
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/08/01/true-identity-learning-about-sex-reassignment-surgery/
The scope of this article is rather limited, but it's not bad.

[thevaliantx]

You didn't catch my drift.