I've been thinking a lot about Sarah Fox's article, particular this excerpt:
I believe further that transsexualism is related to these two disorders. What then determines the outcome of perturbation of one's hormonal environment in utero? I would say that two factors are critical. First, obviously, is the magnitude of the perturbation. Different brain and body systems may require different levels of testosterone in order to be masculinized, and masculinization may not be an all-or-nothing phenomenon. Thus, different testosterone levels may be associated with different magnitudes of masculinization and with different combinations of masculine and feminine development throughout the brain and body. Perhaps more critical is the timing of the testosterone suppression, as different systems develop and sexually differentiate at different times throughout fetal development. Testosterone suppression very early in pregnancy may result, for instance, in a failure to masculinize the hypothalamus, which arguably could result in female-patterned sexual preference, hence homosexuality, during adulthood. Testosterone insufficiency at later stages could result in failure to masculinize numerous other brain systems, including perhaps the cerebral cortex very late in development. As a result, the adult's cognitive patterns could be very feminine, although socialized artificially into masculine patterns. This condition could underlie gender identity disorders such as transvestism and transsexuality.The idea that our gender alignment in terms of mental characteristics is influenced by when the perturbation happens during fetal development really stuck with me. In an attempt to make sense of this I tried to make a crude sort of "putting together of the puzzle pieces" to see what configuration will make the most sense to produce different types of mental profiles in the spectrum of gender dysphoria. I know this will likely be overly simplified if not completely inaccurate, but I figured it would be fun to start somewhere.
Assumption 1: The development of the brain of the fetus will grow outwards and chronological develop in the order of really primal structures to the outer cerebral cortex. What this translates to is that the more basic mental functions will develop first. Looks like the brain becomes gender specific starting around week 10:
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/brain-development-in-fetus.html. The environment in the uterus is suppose to contribute to 30% of brain development.
Assumption 2: The magnitude of the perturbation in hormonal activity is independent of when it occurs in fetal development. In other words in the passage's context, the mother will be just as likely to be stressed at any given time of her pregnancy.
Using what I perceive as the prevalence of different profiles (e.g. ratio of homosexuals vs. heterosexual ->-bleeped-<-, etc.), I have put together the following GENERIC categorical buckets strictly for genetic males that I think fits best. It would be more clear presenting this in a chart or infographic, but I'll start with this.
Period 1) Gender that gets you sexually aroused (what testosterone pushes you towards):
Default: females, stressed: males
Period 2) Gender role you fit under during such sexual arousal
Default: male, stressed: female
Period 3) Method of exercising gender role during sexual arousal
Default: top/sperm donor, stressed: bottom/sperm receiver
Period 4) Gender that gets you romantically excited (what oxytocin pushes you towards):
Default: females, stressed: males
Period 5) Gender that you identify with:
Default: male, stressed: female
Period 6) Gender alignment of cognition/behavior/higher level thought processes (very large bucket that spans many weeks of fetal brain development)
Default: female, stressed: male
Then, here is how the common gender/sexual orientation profiles that we observe in society can be defined by these periods/categories. We will expect that the common profiles should have categories that are adjacent to one another since the effects of the stress hormones in the mother over time is continuous and not discrete. There will also be people that will show as stressed in category 1 in combination with other categories since I believe being stressed in category 1 should be the most common (reason explained below). Sorry if I have some of the stereotypes wrong.
1)
The sissy slut ->-bleeped-<-/crossdresser: He loves to dress as a woman and fantasize about being used by men. He is typically a closeted "weekend" crossdresser. All this only occurs when he is sexually aroused. After ejaculation he feels guilty. When not sexually aroused he identifies as a typical heterosexual male and is viewed by society as a typical male with masculine behaviors.
Period of stress hormones/toxins during fetal development:
1, 2, 3. Beginning-heavy stress.
2)
The gay top: Typically masculine in appearance and behavior. Sexually and romantically interested in men. Usually does not set off people's gaydar.
Period of stress hormones/toxins during fetal development:
1, 4. Less pronounced middle-heavy stress.
3)
The gay effeminate bottom: Sexually and romantically interested in men. The type that will set off your gaydar. This is also where drag queens will be characterized.
Period of stress hormones/toxins during fetal development:
1, 3, 4, 5.5 (pronounced but not completely), 6. More pronounced middle-heavy stress.
4)
The lesbian transgirl: A study has shown that there is a higher incidence of lesbian transgirls amongst transgirls than lesbian cisgirls amongst cisgirls.
Period of stress hormones/toxins during fetal development:
2, 3.5, 5, 6 (pronounced but not completely), 6. End-heavy stress.
5)
The heterosexual transgirl: She knew from as young as she can remember that she was a girl.
Period of stress hormones/toxins during fetal development:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Continually stressed.
6)
Stereotypical heterosexual male: Period of stress hormones/toxins during fetal development:
None. Insignificantly stressed.
I tried to find out what is more common: the heterosexual/bi-curious ->-bleeped-<- or the male homosexual (which will semantically mean sexually and romantically attracted to men). I did a search on Fetlife and it does appear there are more CD/TV profiles and associated populated groups than the gay profiles and groups. I believe there are more non-homosexual bottom ->-bleeped-<-s than homosexuals. From my map you can see that what causes this transvestitism is SOLELY the lack of early masculinization. This will make sense with what I believe that the most common period of brain development that is vulnerable to not being masculinized is the beginning. Perhaps 1) the primal mid-brain area already started development without waiting for the testes to begin producing testosterone or 2) the stress hormones are already present during the beginning of testosterone production-- an extended lag period is needed to build up T (it takes longer for the fetus to be saturated with testosterone and reach the threshold of being considered non-->-bleeped-<-). I think this period of determining this sexual orientation can arguably be the most primal attribute of our brain of all the other categorical bucket items I have listed.
Additionally, with male brains being larger and heavier than female brains (see particularly the stria terminalis), it seems like the masculinization of the brain is an additive process. This can help support (although I believe it isn't the main factor) why GD can be more pronounced as we age since our brain mass and neural connections will typically degenerate.
Some problems with this include:1) Period 3 may not make sense being so early since motor skills are not developed yet
2) There should be a unique profile for all adjacent categories. However, I can't really imagine too many 4 - 5's, meaning a male who identifies as female, is romantically attracted to men, but likes to top and ->-bleeped-<- them.
Questions to you: 1) Are you able to find yourself fitting into this map?
2) For those that consider yourself very high on the scale of gender dysphoria, do you know if your mom has had a prolonged period of stress during her pregnancy?
3) What are your general thoughts on my generalization?
Although I definitely identify with female attributes in some of these categories (which should be normal for almost everyone as few things are absolute), I believe I fit just 1. I know that I am a very anxious person and so is my mom (genetic?) and it is possible she had some anxiety attack episodes, especially after trying to conceive me as the first child after a miscarriage.
Thanks for reading!
