Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Within four months of estrogen therapy on XY trans: The brain reduces by 25% to female typical proportions, so I've read in this neuroscience publication.

I'm wondering - And this may sound ridiculous

But female typical proportions in an XY encasing. Could your brain possibly start moving around in there with a twist of a head? I've never heard of it happening, but does it? Could it?

Quote from: Terracotta on March 21, 2014, 02:12:32 AM
Within four months of estrogen therapy on XY trans: The brain reduces by 25% to female typical proportions, so I've read in this neuroscience publication.

I'm wondering - And this may sound ridiculous

But female typical proportions in an XY encasing. Could your brain possibly start moving around in there with a twist of a head? I've never heard of it happening, but does it? Could it?

where did you read that?

http://www.eje-online.org/content/155/suppl_1/S107.full.pdf

Your brain is bathed in cerebrospinal fluid, it acts as the shock absorber.

Where are the sources? This sounds like Borat science.

Edit: three replies before I finished.

Quote from: MugwortPsychonaut on March 21, 2014, 02:32:12 AM
Where are the sources? This sounds like Borat science.

They are one of the leading research groups in the world on transgender science. Louis Gooren is THE expert on hormonal therapy.

Unless the brain is mostly wasted space, I don't understand how that doesn't kill you.

There's enough space to account for some growth and shrinkage.  We're talking about small but measureable amounts in actual size - the square cube law applies.  Physiologically, the brain produces CSF continuously and the excess is reabsorbed - the fluid can buffer the changes in dimension within reasonable limits.

The study itself is interesting - it's now most definite that neural regeneration and growth occurs to a greater degree than previously thought.  The ability of the human body to regenerate is far greater than what we originally believed.  The sample size is somewhat small, but there are enough consistencies to be able to draw initial conclusions.

Unfortunately for something like this, there's no way a double blind study could ever be done. :P

Quote from: Terracotta on March 21, 2014, 02:12:32 AM
The brain reduces by 25% to female typical proportions,

Where do you see that in the article?

It says there is an average 31ml change in total volume, but the starting volume is around 1330ml. Which is about a 2.3% change.

OH god, Thank god you're right KarinMcd! The original article I was reading (that linked to the study) said percentage! and I guess scanning through all the information in the linked article It wasn't something I would think to question.

Anyways I feel a lot more relieved it's not a 25% reduction in brain volume over 4 months.

Quote from: KarinMcD on March 21, 2014, 05:58:58 AM
Where do you see that in the article?

It says there is an average 31ml change in total volume, but the starting volume is around 1330ml. Which is about a 2.3% change.

2.3% seems like a much more reasonable number, if it had been 25% I get the feeling it would have been noticed much earlier.

Most anything is OK with me if I can grow some nice breasts & hips.

Quote from: Hikari on March 21, 2014, 08:20:00 AM
2.3% seems like a much more reasonable number, if it had been 25% I get the feeling it would have been noticed much earlier.

Yes, it would have given a new meaning to the phrase light headed lol.

Now if only my fat melon would shrink...

Quote from: Jill F on March 21, 2014, 02:40:43 PM
Now if only my fat melon would shrink...

Slices up your melon and serves it to everyone.

Quote from: Hikari on March 21, 2014, 08:20:00 AM
2.3% seems like a much more reasonable number, if it had been 25% I get the feeling it would have been noticed much earlier.

If it isn't a 25% reduction, I guess I need to find an alternate explanation for the hollow sound when I hit my head. ;D

At a guess, the 25% is 25% of the typical _difference_ between male and female brain size. 

25% of _total_ brain size is enormous and far past what cerebrospinal fluid could accommodate.  Trephination was invented because even a few percent expansion (due to hematoma, for instance) in brain volume can be fatal. 

I would have liked to have seen the areas of the brain and function thereof (e.g. using spect scans) correlated with the MRI scans.  Given the changes in sex drive for a MTF, that change alone could have accounted for a significant portion of the loss (mid brain shrinkage, rest folding in).  There was some scatter in the data, particularly for MTFs and I'm not sure how this impacted the data.  A correlation with estrogen/testosterone levels with loss might have provided additional insight.  Interesting article.

Jen