No Smoking Gun Part 2

An old farmer met his son at the airport returning home from college. The farmer hooked his thumbs into the straps of his overalls and with a big smile said proudly to his son, “Tell me son, tell me something you learned at that big fancy college.” The young thought about it for a minute then said to his father, “Well daddy I learned that pi r squared.” Suddenly, with a stern look the father slapped his son across the top of his head and said, “Dummy, pie are round, cornbread is square!”

Okay, one more: A lady asked a little boy at the park, “Do you have a fairy godmother?” The little boy said, “No but we have an uncle we’re a little concerned about.”

So what do these two bad jokes have to do with what I want to talk about in this article? Just that things are not always perceived in the manner in which we intend. For example the DSM no longer mentions transsexualism as a mental disorder. That’s great because we are no longer stigmatized with the idea we are suffering through some sort mental problem. However, on the other hand insurance companies can say it’s not a problem so therefor we don’t have to pay for related care.

When we start looking for proof that gender dysphoria is somehow nature and not nurture, it may have some unintended consequences. I’m thinking of genetic screening in undeveloped fetuses. That is not to say we should not look, I’m only saying be careful what you ask for because you just might get it.

The biggest underlying problem with any gender study is brain overlap. Think of it this way, we say that there are 30 days in a month. However, in reality that is not always true. Some months have 28 days. So on average we say there are 30 days in a month. There are certain attributes that are associated with the female brain, but that is not to say that every female brain has those attributes. Even in some cis males we find that they share these same traits.

Fear not and don’t be discouraged, there really are encouraging studies that say that yes, being transgender is a real thing, provable and not a choice. In this article I want to talk about those studies.

Pheromones and other allures of the Transgender brain.

In a study published in 2014, psychologist Sarah M. Burke of VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam and biologist Julie Bakker of the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience used a MRI to examine how 39 prepubescent and 41 adolescent boys and girls with gender dysphoria to see how they responded to androstadienone. Androstadienone an odorous steroid with pheromone like properties that is known to cause a different response in the hypothalamus of men versus women. They found that the adolescent boys and girls with gender dysphoria responded much like peers of their experienced gender. The results were less clear with the prepubescent children.

This kind of study is important, says Baudewijntje Kreukels, an expert on gender dysphoria at VU University Medical Center said, “Sex differences when responding to odors cannot be influenced by training or environment.”

Another 2014 experiment by Burke and her colleagues measured the responses of boys and girls with gender dysphoria to echo-like sounds produced by the inner ear in response to a clicking noise. Boys with gender dysphoria responded more like typical females, who have a stronger response to these sounds. However, girls with gender dysphoria also responded like typical females. [1]

The long and short of it.

One time when I went to see my endocrinologist she asked if I was having any problems with the estrogen pills. I told her, no, the only problems I’ve ever had was for the short time I couldn’t afford the estrogen pills and had to go off them. She then looked at my lab work and said to me, Well it’s obvious that your body likes having the estrogen. As it turns out she was right.

In the genetic study entitled, Molecular basis of Gender Dysphoria: androgen and estrogen receptor interaction [2] they assessed the role of androgen receptors (AR), estrogen receptors alpha (ER?) and beta (ER?). ER? is one of two main types of estrogen receptor, and aromatase (CYP19A1). When either of these polymorphisms (A variation in a specific DNA sequence.) is short, the other is long.

The data shows that ER? plays a key role in the typical brain differentiation of humans. In somatic males, specific genotype interactions between the ER? and the AR increase the odds ratio of gender dysphoria.

What all that means is that the estrogen receptors in the MtF may be more sensitive to receiving estrogen than a typical genetic male without gender dysphoria.

Also in a different study, Androgen receptor repeat length polymorphism associated with male-to-female transsexualism had this to say:

There is a likely genetic component to transsexualism, and genes involved in sex steroidogenesis are good candidates. We explored the specific hypothesis that male-to-female transsexualism is associated with gene variants responsible for undermasculinization and/or feminization. Androgen receptor repeat length polymorphism associated with male-to-female transsexualism were studied. A significant association was identified between transsexualism and the AR allele, with transsexuals having longer AR repeat lengths than non-transsexual male control subjects. A significant association was identified between transsexualism and the AR allele, with transsexuals having longer AR repeat lengths than non-transsexual male control subjects. No associations for transsexualism were evident in repeat lengths for CYP19 or ERbeta genes. Individuals were then classified as short or long for each gene polymorphism on the basis of control median polymorphism lengths in order to further elucidate possible combined effects. This study provides evidence that male gender identity might be partly mediated through the androgen receptors.

The study is saying that transsexuals may have longer repeat cycles, meaning more receptors to receive estrogen.

A Transgender Brain?

In the University of California, San Diego — Laura Case wanted to test neurological activity with an MRI. Laura tested eight Trans men (biologically female) against eight cisgender women who were used as a control group.  Laura found that the Trans men had lessened activity in a region of the brain called the supramarginal gyrus. This is an area in the brain which is responsible for giving us a sense of what body parts belong to us. The results may propose that this is less active in transgendered people. Male and female brains are, on average, slightly different in structure, although there is tremendous individual variability.

Spanish investigators—led by psychobiologist Antonio Guillamon of the National Distance Education University in Madrid and neuropsychologist Carme Junqué Plaja of the University of Barcelona—used MRI to examine the brains of 24 female-to-males and 18 male-to-females—both before and after treatment with cross-sex hormones. Their results, published in 2013, Cortical thickness in untreated transsexuals, [3] showed that even before treatment the brain structures of the Trans people were more similar in some respects to the brains of their experienced gender than those of their natal gender. For example, the female-to-male subjects had relatively thin subcortical areas (these areas tend to be thinner in men than in women). Male-to-female subjects tended to have thinner cortical regions in the right hemisphere, which is characteristic of a female brain. (Such differences became more pronounced after treatment.)

“Trans people have brains that are different from males and females, a unique kind of brain,” Guillamon says. “It is simplistic to say that a female-to-male transgender person is a female trapped in a male body. It’s not because they have a male brain but a transsexual brain.” Of course, behavior and experience shape brain anatomy, so it is impossible to say if these subtle differences are inborn.”

Scientist are now doing a lot of good work with brain scans and gene studies. They are finding significant links between being transgender, the perception of who we are and our physical bodies. Of course the hardest struggle we face is to be accepted for who we are. To change perceived and learned ignorance. In my next addition to the No Smoking Gun series I am going to discuss another hot button topic, the Bible and transgenderism.

Chrissy Gann Instagram @Chrissy Gann

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Bibliography for: No smoking gun pt.2

[1] The Big Think, Is There Something Unique about the Transgender Brain?

[2] Psychoneuroendocrinology2018 Dec;98:161-167.doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.07.032. Epub 2018 Aug 1

[3] Cortical Thickness in Untreated Transsexuals, Cerebral Cortex, Volume 23, Issue 12, December 2013, Pages 2855–2862

[4] Biol Psychiatry. 2009 Jan 1;65(1):93-6.Doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2008.08.033. Epub 2008 Oct 28.

Tags: featured, science, Transgender, Transsexual

Category: Transgender Body & Soul