Gender Dysphoria - the cause. Are transsexual people born or made? "The current medical viewpoint, based on the most up-to-date scientific research, is that Gender Dysphoria, which in its extreme manifestation is known as transsexualism, is strongly associated with unusual neurodevelopment of the brain at the fetal stage. Small areas of the brain are known to be distinctly different between males and females in the population generally. In those experiencing severe Gender Dysphoria, one of these areas has been shown to develop in opposition to other sex characteristics and is, therefore, incongruent with the visible sex appearance." Preface from a GIRES booklet (Gender Identity, Research and Education Society)
Up to the middle half of the 20th Century it was believed that Gender, our brain sex, what we think and know we are and how we identify ourselves in society, was the result of nurture, being brought up as boy or girl depending on the physical birth sex. Gender Dysphoria was classed as an aberration, a mental disorder, and treated as such, treatment ranging from radical surgery such as lobotomy to drug therapy including hallucinogenics  such as LSD.  There is now  universal agreement that this treatment was an unqualified failure, in fact I have yet to find any case study that was a success. The failure, and the cost in lives and mental heath of the poor souls treated with such techniques triggered a whole new thinking and research. About 40 years ago it was established that Gender and physical sex were two separate components of  a pre-natal interaction,  gender is something we are born with, not made. Transsexual people therefore are born, not made and Gender Dysphoria was recognised as a medical, not mental, condition. There is a broad consensus, if not universal acceptance, of opinion that it is all down to a hormonal accident at about 16 weeks of foetal development. What is known is we are all conceived as Female. At around 8 weeks of age the genes carried on the Y chromosome begins the physical changes that produce a male body. At this stage the pre-natal genitals secrete tiny amounts of sex hormone depending on the physical sex. At around 16 weeks, a time that coincides with the development of  those centres of the brain responsible for sexual awareness and gender, particularly the hypothalamus, there is a more powerful burst of hormones and many people are of the opinion that it is this burst of hormonal activity that instructs the developing brain on the physical nature of the body it is in and an accident at this stage could well cause the brain to develop opposite to the physical sex. This theory is now supported by the results of research carried out in the Netherlands over the last 11 years. This has established that the hypothalamus in a Female brain is smaller than that of a male brain and also has a different cell structure.  Post mortems carried out on both MTF and FTM transsexual people have in every case identified a brain structure that is opposite to that of the physical sex. The identification of Gender Dysphoria as a medical, not mental, condition led to a radical shift in treatment methods. There is now universal agreement worldwide that Gender, the brain, cannot be changed and to relieve the misery and deep anguish and unhappiness of the condition it is necessary to change the physical sex and social presentation of the sufferer to be in harmony with the mind. This can range from just being given help to live as a member of the opposite physical sex to hormone therapy to surgical adjustments ultimately ending in corrective surgery of the genitalia.  I avoid the use of the common phrase sex-change.  My sex is female, my Gender is female, only my genitals are male and any surgery to change them into female genitals is corrective surgery, not surgery to change my sex. Forward to "Childhood - growing up with Gender Dysphoria Back to home page Back to personal index some  useful  links: A fact sheet and questions and answers on Gender Dysphoria The governments view The NHS view
Email me here: