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intersex and transsexual

Started by anibioman, July 26, 2011, 06:14:09 PM

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anibioman

GID is currently considered a mental health condition which makes it sound like its all in our heads.

i feel like GID is and intersex condition of the brain where the brain doesnt match ones DNA. in other intersex conditions parts of the body dont match the DNA.

i has been proven that trans men have brains more similar to mens then womens and vic versa.

so i think transsexuals should be considered intersex. what do you think?

Sunnynight

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Natkat

well I just wondering,
what about the transexuals who is intersex?
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Nygeel

That's the Harry Benjamin Syndrome theory.
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Sunnynight

Quote from: Natkat on July 26, 2011, 06:36:09 PM
well I just wondering,
what about the transexuals who is intersex?
A comorbidity of two intersex conditions
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Natkat

it just dosent really make sense if the DNA and gender has to be opposite then intersex transexuals must be...
uhm?? yeah??? im totally lost here... ???
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Nygeel

Quote from: Natkat on July 26, 2011, 06:55:53 PM
it just dosent really make sense if the DNA and gender has to be opposite then intersex transexuals must be...
uhm?? yeah??? im totally lost here... ???
That's not really...it's...well...

Alright, so gender is how you see yourself. Man, woman, genderqueer, two spirit, androgyne, agender, bigender, etc. There is no "opposite" sex to gender (ex: the opposite of male isn't woman).

Sex is more so about how you physically identify your body and a whole bunch of other things. Sex (in the sense of what is assigned) is determined medically by primary sex characteristics (testicles, ovaries, uterus, penis, clitoris, etc), hormone levels and what hormone receptors put out, DNA, and probably a few other things I can't remember. So, a person's DNA isn't always related to being intersex.
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Silas

What about transsexuals who wish to transition to intersex?
Also, that brain shape thing confuses me. Confuses me like this: "Transmen and cismen/Transwomen and ciswomen have similar brain-shapes." "Gay men and straight women/Gay women and straight men have similar brain shapes." Gay transpeople...?

I'm gonna go with neither agree nor disagree.
In terms of identity, everyone can call themselves what they wish.
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Nygeel

Quote from: Silas on July 26, 2011, 09:31:31 PM
What about transsexuals who wish to transition to intersex?
I feel like that phrasing and idea is appropriating the intersex experience, however there some people who identify their bodies as neither female nor male. I feel as if sexqueer would be a good word for a person who identifies as neither male nor female, or a mix of both.

QuoteAlso, that brain shape thing confuses me. Confuses me like this: "Transmen and cismen/Transwomen and ciswomen have similar brain-shapes." "Gay men and straight women/Gay women and straight men have similar brain shapes." Gay transpeople...?

I'm gonna go with neither agree nor disagree.
In terms of identity, everyone can call themselves what they wish.
I have the same take.
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JohnAlex

Quote from: Silas on July 26, 2011, 09:31:31 PM
What about transsexuals who wish to transition to intersex?
Also, that brain shape thing confuses me. Confuses me like this: "Transmen and cismen/Transwomen and ciswomen have similar brain-shapes." "Gay men and straight women/Gay women and straight men have similar brain shapes." Gay transpeople...?

I'm gonna go with neither agree nor disagree.
In terms of identity, everyone can call themselves what they wish.

I have no idea, but I'm going to make a random guess here and guess that whoever made the first claim and whoever made the second claim where possibly looking at different parts of the brain. 
again, I have no idea.  I just think it would make sense that way.

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Silas

I have no plans to get my head cracked open, so the shape of my brain is of no concern. I don't care if it's feminine-shaped, as that holds no real meaning to me.  :)

Quote from: Nygeel on July 26, 2011, 09:48:45 PM
I feel like that phrasing and idea is appropriating the intersex experience, however there some people who identify their bodies as neither female nor male. I feel as if sexqueer would be a good word for a person who identifies as neither male nor female, or a mix of both.
I like the term sexqueer as well. But people are free to ID as they wish, and if one transitioning to a genitally-ambiguous stage wishes to ID as intersex, no one can really stop them. I rather enjoy both terms, and might use them to refer to myself at more "ambiguous times". (Although intersex seems to imply inborn.)

Quote from: JohnAlex on July 26, 2011, 10:25:42 PM
I have no idea, but I'm going to make a random guess here and guess that whoever made the first claim and whoever made the second claim where possibly looking at different parts of the brain. 
again, I have no idea.  I just think it would make sense that way.

That just makes me even more intrigued of the anatomy of the brain. Hm. Very strange.
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insideontheoutside

There's way more intersex conditions, or rather variations as like to put it, than are currently classified. There's a heck of a lot of "ambiguous genitalia" out there but there's also a lot of chemical (hormone) balance variations. I think science has verified that chemical imbalances while in the womb can effect physical changes in the embryo. Just like hormones now are effecting physical changes in bodies. The brain being part of the physical body is of course subject to effects of chemicals as well. So at least to me, I feel like since before you were born things could have effected body, brain or both then the resulting physical body or brain "condition" that then effects your or others perception of your gender could be classed as intersex. Make sense?



"Let's conspire to ignite all the souls that would die just to feel alive."
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Natkat

Quote from: Nygeel on July 26, 2011, 07:18:26 PM
That's not really...it's...well...

Alright, so gender is how you see yourself. Man, woman, genderqueer, two spirit, androgyne, agender, bigender, etc. There is no "opposite" sex to gender (ex: the opposite of male isn't woman).

Sex is more so about how you physically identify your body and a whole bunch of other things. Sex (in the sense of what is assigned) is determined medically by primary sex characteristics (testicles, ovaries, uterus, penis, clitoris, etc), hormone levels and what hormone receptors put out, DNA, and probably a few other things I can't remember. So, a person's DNA isn't always related to being intersex.

well I get it so far the thing confussing me is,

if transexuals must be seen as intersex because there brain is opposite of there body DNA (ex a female brain with male DNA )
then a transexual + intersex person (ex a female brain, and a Female DNA) would be view as?
+ as it said before
many people have female/male brains or brain parth without being trans.
ex it said gay people use the same part of there brain to be attracted to men as straight female use..
--

for me being trans is a gender-identety, as any other identetys,
but many want it put on a "dignose list" to get help from doctors,

as always people must be "dignosed" before people even want to help them,
the world are pretty mad.

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LordKAT

I don't see 'trans' as a gender identity. I can make no sense of it being so.
As to male brain or female brain, it is in degrees. Perhaps an overlap but still no absolute number of neurons make you male, female, gay or straight.
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Natkat

what you gender you identify as no matter biology is your gender-identity, so for me it makes pretty good sense LOL.

I dont want to overanalyse the brain since I dont think anything good will come out of it,
the brain is very complicated and always the body part who get the blame of everything (LOL poor buddy)
but the idea of jugdementing transpeople on there brain worries me allite,

if people find out a special thing in the brain or a special thing who make people transgender they can cure it,
or make aborting for people who are suspected of having transgender kids.

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insideontheoutside

Quote from: Kvall on July 27, 2011, 04:26:21 PM
They may be free to, but it sure is ->-bleeped-<-ing rude to actual intersex people. Just because someone is "free to ID" a certain way doesn't mean they're not oppressing or hurting someone in the process. What you're suggesting is akin to a cis man saying he can identify as a trans man because he wants to have a vagina.

That's on the basis of changing bodily anatomy, anyway. If you consider transsexuality to be an intersex condition of the brain, I'm not sure if there's necessarily anything wrong or appropriative about that. There may be. I don't know. I don't like that the conversation is centered around a supposed "mismatch" with the biological essentialism implied in that, because bodies in general--not just intersex bodies--are varied upon a massive spectrum of different sexual phenotypic traits. That society ignores this disproportionately harms trans and intersex people, and while that doesn't make them the same thing, it does mean that both communities need to be sensitive to the other's bodily reality... which isn't happening very often, IME.

Culturally I think trans & intersex people face similar challenges, but often in different or even opposite ways. For example, both groups are frequently abused by the medical system--intersex people sometimes having medically unnecessary surgeries and hormones forced upon them as minors, and trans people often having medically necessary surgeries and hormones denied or delayed, especially if they are minors (of course, both could happen in the same person if they're both trans and intersex). Both are forms of restricting bodily autonomy and enforcing cissexual norms, but the differences are important. Saying trans = intersex without consulting intersex people erases that difference and as a result erases the specific challenges faced by intersex folk.

I'm with you on almost all these points.

Having been born with ambiguous genitals and being lucky enough to not have parents who opted for any surgical corrections, but not lucky enough to escape what I lightly call "medical persecution" by having hormones foisted on me at an early age, I can definitely attest to the differences in how the two groups are treated. It probably is one of the reasons why I'm so anti-medical intervention (aka "transition") for myself as well. That aside, many intersex people have to face serious health conditions. I'm certainly not making light of any transsexual identified person who is not physically intersex. Their "condition" however is mental, not physical (even though as I said in my first response above that I do believe things that happen in the womb before birth can effect the brain as well as body and potentially cause that which becomes what is labeled transsexualism). I always felt while someone with a serious intersex condition without medical treatment might die from a direct result of the condition, transsexual people could not - unless of course they take their own lives, which unfortunately does happen if they don't get the medical treatment to make them feel more comfortable in their own bodies. Intersex people are treated like freaks by a portion of the medical world, transsexual people are treated like freaks by a portion of the psychological world. Neither of which is right imo.

Regardless of the debate, I'm in agreement with Kvall that the communities at large are not coming together on the issue. Both sides feel the persecution from all the so-called "normal" people who believe there should only be two models, etc. Unfortunately that's the society we live in. And much like there have been gay people all throughout history that have hidden that fact about them just to blend in with the "normal" society, there's been intersexual people who have hidden their body differences to blend in with "normal" society. Seriously, you think I let people in on the fact I haven't got the typical set up downstairs? It's a huge secret in my life, compounded by the fact that they also stamped an "F" on my birth certificate and I grew up feeling very much "M", but unaware there was anything I could do about it because I'm about 20 years behind most everyone else on this board, and by this point in my life am pretty much just, "eh f**k it, I'm me".
"Let's conspire to ignite all the souls that would die just to feel alive."
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insideontheoutside

Quote from: Kvall on July 27, 2011, 06:56:16 PM
I'm not clear which part you disagree with--are you saying surgery/hormones are not medically necessary for some trans people, or just pointing out that there are cases where treatment is medically necessary for certain intersex conditions? If it was something else, then I missed it. If it's the former, medically necessary doesn't mean you'll die without it. It also includes where someone's quality of life would be unnecessarily impaired by denying or delaying treatment. Even that is a conservative definition of medical necessity; most health providers define it (paraphrasing) as simply the appropriate care for an existing medical condition, especially where the condition will not improve without such treatment. In my case, my quality of life was severely degraded by not being allowed to access hormones for four years after telling my doctor that I needed them--this was done to me because I was a minor at the time.

If you meant the latter, that may be the case. I'm not familiar with which intersex conditions require medical intervention. However, the "medically unnecessary" surgeries and hormones I was referring to were those that are administered non-consensually for no reason other than to make the person look more acceptably male or female to the doctor or parent. I was under the impression that these are more common than treatment for intersex conditions that actually require medical intervention, but I could be wrong.

Sorry, I had that post up for while before I actually finished it and originally I was going to disagree on the ID part at the beginning, but went back and reread who's post you were referring to and while I don't think it's necessarily "rude", I'm sure plenty of people with intersex conditions might see it that way.

I was saying that the medical necessity is for different reasons, but still necessity in a lot of cases - as you point out, your own quality of life was vastly improved by medical intervention. To me, that could be classed as a necessity if eventually the person is so unhappy and unable to really live their life and specific medical treatment would improve it.

I neglected to point out though that I do not think corrective surgery of a baby or anyone under the age of consent should be carried out unless it actually prevents a bodily function or something else is radically wrong (there have been cases of blocked urethras, etc. in some cases where, yeah, something had to happen in order to fix). If it's just to fit some idealized version of male or female then NFW.  Conditions such as congenital adrenal hyperplasia can be serious and even life threatening in infants so yeah, with some of the intersex conditions medical intervention is a necessity. So that's what I meant by that.
"Let's conspire to ignite all the souls that would die just to feel alive."
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ALX

Quote from: Silas on July 26, 2011, 09:31:31 PM
What about transsexuals who wish to transition to intersex?
Also, that brain shape thing confuses me. Confuses me like this: "Transmen and cismen/Transwomen and ciswomen have similar brain-shapes." "Gay men and straight women/Gay women and straight men have similar brain shapes." Gay transpeople...?


We get to confuse those that think they have all the answers ;)
I just think gender isn't as black and white as the average toilet may suggest..
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Natkat

For me it seams as Transexuals want to be Intersex because it seam more easy to get treatment,
but is it fair to be something just so it more easy to get help?


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anibioman

the brain thing is that using MRIs they can see active parts of the brain and by adding stimuli they can see the brains reaction to certain things this reaction changes between people of different gender. the brain activity of a transman and cis man are more similar then a transman as compaired to that of a cis women. suggesting that our brains are wired like that of a cis male and in our heads we are male. hopefully that better explains it.