Quote from: KatieP on September 08, 2018, 11:20:09 PM
As one example, in one of the studies, the abstract sahttps://thesafezoneproject.com/about/ys,
"Results revealed that regional gray matter variation in MTF transsexuals is more similar to the pattern found in men than in women. However, MTF transsexuals show a significantly larger volume of regional gray matter in the right putamen compared to men. " ... This evidence, "supports the assumption that brain anatomy plays a role in gender identity." So, the actual results go both ways in support and not. The actual result of that study is to say MAYBE brain anatomy affects gender identity.
No, the actual result of that study is that evidence related to regional gray matter variations supports the assumption that brain anatomy plays a role in gender identity.
There are a large number of such studies at this point in time, with several pinpoint locations in the brain showing very strong correlation with expressed gender identity and not with sex assigned at birth. There are also a number of studies of regions of the brain that show a somewhat weaker correlation.
In looking at 10
regions of the brain that show correlation with gender identity, it turns out that only about 6% of the population have all 10 regions showing a correlation with the sex assigned at birth. Most folks have some blend of attributes for these larger, easily image attributes.
I hypothesize that, much like the Kinsey studies found with sexual orientation, that much of the population has a slightly blended set of attributes between a male and female gender identity, likely following the familiar double Gaussian distribution with peaks near the Male and Female poles of gender identity.
There is quite a bit of lighter reading out there on the topic, beyond the dry and difficult scientific papers. Here are some good links to get you started:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-there-something-unique-about-the-transgender-brain/http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0091302211000252About neurological sexual dimorphism:
http://m.pnas.org/content/112/50/15468.shortLinks to neurological studies of trans women and men:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/7477289/http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022395610001585?via%3Dihubhttp://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0083947http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/10843193/About origins of condition:
These are still fairly new studies.
In the study below, a strong correlation was found, indicating a significant association between transsexualism in trans women and the a gene site allelemorph with transsexuals having longer repeat lengths than non-transsexual male control subjects. This affects the formation of androgen receptors in embryonic neurological tissues.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/18962445/Here is a very similar study dealing with trans men:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/24274329/?i=2&from=%2F18962445%2FrelatedConclusion:
This is more than enough evidence to make the following statements:
- neurologically, trans men are men and trans women are women.
.
- this is an observable, inborn trait. Trans people are as they are born.
Trans women are women born women and trans men are born men. They just require medical (hormonal) intervention to have that better expressed in the rest of their bodies that's not neurological tissues.
Furthermore, we have known for a long time now that the "binary model" of gender and sex is incorrect. Stanford did a good job at putting it in writing a few years back.
http://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2015/02/24/sex-biology-redefined-genes-dont-indicate-binary-sexes/