TS Brains
Men who have sexBiological attributes and legal categories used to classify humans as male, female, intersex or other categories, primarily associated with physical and physiological features including chromosomes, genetic expression, hormone levels and function, and reproductive/sexual anatomy. change operations may be acting on a deep-seated urge “programmed” into the very fabric of the brain, according to a study of brain tissue from transsexuals who left their bodies to science. Dick Swaab and his colleagues at the Netherlands Institute for Brain Research in Amsterdam say they have identified a brain structure that varies in size between “normal” men and men driven to change sexBiological attributes and legal categories used to classify humans as male, female, intersex or other categories, primarily associated with physical and physiological features including chromosomes, genetic expression, hormone levels and function, and reproductive/sexual anatomy..
Swaab and his colleagues believe their finding could explain why some men have such strong feelings of being born the wrong sexBiological attributes and legal categories used to classify humans as male, female, intersex or other categories, primarily associated with physical and physiological features including chromosomes, genetic expression, hormone levels and function, and reproductive/sexual anatomy.. All other attempts to find a biological basis for transsexuality have drawn a blank. Previous studies have reported brain differences between men and women and between gay menMen who form their primary loving and sexual relationships with other men. and heterosexual men. But this research is the first attempt to explain transsexuality in terms of brain structure. The findings will reopen the debate about the potential pitfalls – social as well as scientific – of seeking simple biological explanations for things as complex as sexual identity.
The researchers examined slices of brain tissue from 42 people, including six who were born maleA sex, usually assigned at birth, and based on chromosomes (e.g. XY), gene expression, hormone levels and function, and reproductive/sexual anatomy (e.g. penis, testicles). but changed sexBiological attributes and legal categories used to classify humans as male, female, intersex or other categories, primarily associated with physical and physiological features including chromosomes, genetic expression, hormone levels and function, and reproductive/sexual anatomy. later in life with the help of plastic surgery and “feminising” hormonesChemical substances that control and regulate the activity of certain cells or organs; see also: sex hormones. such as oestrogen. Only one major difference came to light between the brains of normal males and those who had changed sexBiological attributes and legal categories used to classify humans as male, female, intersex or other categories, primarily associated with physical and physiological features including chromosomes, genetic expression, hormone levels and function, and reproductive/sexual anatomy.. A tiny cluster of cells known as the “bed nucleus of the stria terminalis”, or BST, was half the size in transsexualThis is typically used to describe people who identify as transgender who are transitioning toward the gender with which they identify. This may include socially presenting (e.g., clothing, hair, mannerisms, overall gender expression) as the gender with which they identify, or it may include more extensive changes like taking hormones and/or surgical procedures to modify their body. men as it was in normal men. The same cluster is usually smaller in women than in men. In effect, the transsexuals had a female-sized BST.
Swaab and his colleagues, whose results appear in the current issue of Nature, believe that the size of the cluster may influence what sexBiological attributes and legal categories used to classify humans as male, female, intersex or other categories, primarily associated with physical and physiological features including chromosomes, genetic expression, hormone levels and function, and reproductive/sexual anatomy. people think they are. But they stress that it has no bearing on sexual orientationPatterns of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions to groups of people (e.g. men, women, trans people), a person’s sense of identity based on those attractions, related behaviors, and membership in a community of others who share those attractions; for example pansexual, bisexual, LGB, heterosexual.. Some transsexuals in the study had slept with men, others with women. Yet all had “feminine” BSTs. Gay menMen who form their primary loving and sexual relationships with other men. in the study had “masculine” BSTs.
The researchers do not know whether women who change sexBiological attributes and legal categories used to classify humans as male, female, intersex or other categories, primarily associated with physical and physiological features including chromosomes, genetic expression, hormone levels and function, and reproductive/sexual anatomy. have masculineDescribes socially and culturally constructed aspects of gender (e.g. roles, behaviour, expression, identity) typically associated with boys and men. BSTs, or whether feminineDescribes socially and culturally constructed aspects of gender (e.g. roles, behaviour, expression, identity) typically associated with girls and women. BSTs cause transsexuality in men. The small size of the brain structure could be caused by other biological events linked to transsexuality.
Nor is it clear how or when BSTs become feminised in the brains of transsexuals. One possibility is that it happens after the decision to change sexBiological attributes and legal categories used to classify humans as male, female, intersex or other categories, primarily associated with physical and physiological features including chromosomes, genetic expression, hormone levels and function, and reproductive/sexual anatomy. has been made, as a result of hormone treatment. Swaab’s group says this is unlikely because some transsexuals had stopped taking oestrogen and their BSTs had not returned to their former size. They suggest instead that fluctuations in the hormonesChemical substances that control and regulate the activity of certain cells or organs; see also: sex hormones. that affect fetuses in the uterus are more likely to affect the size of the BST.
Author – David Concar
Original posting date – 4 November 1995
Source – https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14820020-600-brain-differences-found-in-sex-change-men/