This is the most exceptionally sophisticated, and thoroughly written, article on this topic that I have ever read to date. 💯 Thank you trillions of times over for your meticulously beautiful explanation. I hope the right people read, and more importantly understand your words. 💓💓💓
Thank you! I've been teaching it in LGBTQ health classes and guest lectures for years. I love being able to "translate" scientific concepts into every day language.
This is a fascinating subject. Yes I'm glad you showed how there are 6 basic chromosomal patterns which they generally start with (not just XY and XX). And that is really only the beginning of discussion. And of course men and women both have sex hormones. Males and females both have estrogen and testosterone. However the levels are going to vary depending on the individual. The way the government is characterizing and limiting variation in sex and gender identity is harmful and ignorant. It is easy to see that Trump and his people want to structure society where anyone deviating from the "normal" pattern of male and female is excluded. They have already structured how we characterize male and female with the intention of denying any variation in sex. Gender identity is offered as only two strict narrow choices.
When I first started seeing my current transgender doctor, she asked me if I had an orchiectomy done (which is a surgical procedure removing the testicles). Because my testosterone level was very low and just about non-existent. I told her no and it was just the use of the medicines I was on which gave this result. And she explained that even cisgender women will normally have some testosterone. And in my case the level was too low even for a cisgender woman. She also explained that when my testosterone level was so extremely low I could actually be tired and not function well. Which was probably the case. So she cut back one of my anti-androgens to rebalance things. But the point I'm making is that although I was born a biological male, I am hormonally and neurochemically no longer one. While all the changes from puberty have not been reversed, I am biologically no longer male. This also does not account for changes in my brain which I'm sure have happened. The human brain is capable of neuroplasticity. And they are finding out even late in life change is possible. This has been documented in all kinds of ways from research on people who have had brain injuries into adulthood (studies on topics including phantom limb, aphasia, and other speech-related impediments from brain injury, for example). Situations where the human brain needs time to recover and will essentially rewire itself back to baseline levels.
Whatever the government decides to say, I know that I'm female. And my lab work bears that out. And my transitioning is a matter of having my body catch up with that fact. But our bodies and brains do change if we begin a medical transition involving the use of hormones. Transgender men will use testosterone, and that has a profound effect on their bodies. I have seen transgender men with beards and a beautiful gym rat buff body. They look nothing like the girls they were born as. And as a society we need to accept them. Denying science and trying to prescriptively relegate sexual variation down to strictly two sexes (from birth) is to deny and ignore the experience of some people in our populations (both myself and the writer of this post).
This is a fascinating topic. Not just for people that are transgender. But anyone trying to understand the human experience and how our bodies work. And how anomalies and aberrations occur in science and the natural world. I don't identify as intersex because I was born with genitals that appear in line and normal for a biological male. But I truly believe that we transgender people are essentially intersex in that we start out with built-in differences in our brains. And then problems start for us because our bodies do not match our sense of self and so on.
Both men and women have hormonal regulation which can sometimes show differences but still share similarities. Even hormones generally discussed as part of women's functioning have a role in men's health. The lines can be blurred depending on the function of the specific hormone and neurochemical process. For example, both men and women produce oxytocin. Oxytocin is normally discussed in regard to childbirth and women's uterine contractions. But there are all kinds of details to learn just for this one hormone alone. Men release oxytocin during sexual activity. Then there are other hormones such as prolactin, which has a role in women's lactating and breast function. And there are medicines that will affect the level of prolactin even in males (and may affect breast growth resulting in gynomastia). Such is the case with some antipsychotic or mood regulating psychiatric medicines.
Yes! So many different hormones. And I think there is something biological about trans people that makes us different. Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment.
When attempting to understand and explain the existence of transgender people, a biological explanation has been found by researchers. Scientists have said that not all parts of the human brain are necessarily differentiated when it comes to sex of the person. Men and women are alike in many ways. But when they are different, that differentiation has been shown in studies of transgender people. For anybody who wants to pursue the subject further, I would recommend looking into the work of Robert M. Sapolsky. He is a neuroscientist, a biologist, and one with an impressive background on human and primate biology. He's not a transgender researcher per se but he has devoted time to investigation of transgender existence with biological explanations. And what he offers is supportive of transgender people having a biological explanation for their existence. I have no doubts about this. Here is a quote from some of his work:
"And consistently, regardless of the desired direction of the sex change and, in fact, regardless of whether the person had undergone a sex change yet, the dimorphic brain regions in transgender individuals resembled the sex of the person they had always felt themselves to be, not their “actual” sex."
There is research supporting brain differences and mapping of the brain for transgender people. And what he's saying is the gender we choose to live as matches our brain sometimes and not the identity we have been given at birth (which is in conflict with our self image). Sapolsky is a professor who has taught classes and lectured at Berkeley. There are YouTube videos of his lectures. Finally, he's not some way out left winger (if doubting readers are worried about that). He doesn't need to be. Because he offers scientific investigation only. Fascinating subject matter.
I am intersex- the kind that is obviously neither male nor female right from birth. I’m following you. Are you following me? I can tell you aren’t because you still confuse man with male. Sigh. Man and woman are genders. Male, female and intersex are sexes. Some men are male, some are female and some are intersex. Intersex is a spectrum of sexes and it affects the entire person from brain to anatomy to hormones to chromosomes. Is trans a form of intersex? Heads explode when we ask that question but I don’t give a damn. I’m scientific in my approach to the universe so there are no “off limits” questions for me! In “The Blank Slate” Steven Pinker gives us the history of the colossal 20th century error that led people to imagine that our consciousness is apart from the brain, the brain is apart from our lives and that we’re all born totally empty. In the 20th century we believed we are programmed. This is where the idea that you can turn people into something they are not by just re-programming us came from. It has been used to justify horrid abuses of all kinds of people. It was one of things that taught us the error of belief instead of the understanding through evidence that made life hell for LGBTQI and “racial” minorities. Like you say, it is pure bullshit. You and I should be talking. If you read my essays based on a lifetime of experience with and as a gay, intersex educator I think you may benefit. Http://jamescostich.substack.com. Trans and intersex ppl have so much in common it is stupid if we don’t work together. Those working to eliminate us certainly are working together. Too many intersex ppl don’t get it. I’m not one of them. Forced gender assignment done with laws, indoctrination AND knives is the 20th century history of intersex. A very great many of us transition. The difference between us and you is where we each started from! Trans start fro male or female and need to transf r their bodies to match their brains if they can. The intersex started as intersex - were forced into something sort of like male or female and man OR woman and transfer to… what if we don’t want to transfer? What if we got
To keep our bodies as born - I did- and weren’t bashed into sex gender roles? This is all about freedom, liberty, equality and SELF DETERMINATION- isn’t it? My essays include a list of intersex resources with descriptions.
Jim, I always appreciate your perspective and info! I do know the difference between male/female/intersex (sex) and man/woman/nonbinary (gender). And I am not careful about when I say "male" vs "man" very much on purpose! I believe that intersex and trans people blow up all the binaries involved there. I go past the "traditional" dichotomy of sex as bio and gender as cultural to a place where gender and sex are both cultural constructions. In one of my peer-reviewed publications, I call for epidemiologists to better understand and measure sex and gender in a way that in inclusive of trans, nonbinary, and intersex people:
"The construction of sex as a binary, dimorphic human characteristic (i.e., female or male) is challenged by studies in the genetic, epigenetic, biomedical, neurology, and neuroendocrinology fields. Rather, sex is a multidimensional,
constructed continuum of chromosomal, gonadal, fetal and pubertal hormonal, internal reproductive, external genital, and brain sex that is directly influenced by gender throughout the life course. The existence and lived experiences
of intersex people, or people with variations in sex characteristics
(VSC) and of transgender people (through hormonal and/or surgical changes) further challenge this binary. While the conflation of gender and sex is common, these concepts are neither interchangeable nor completely separate—they
are entangled. Careful attention to their operationalization, interaction, multidimensionality, and mutual influence is warranted. (Some scholars use “sex/gender” to highlight this 'irreducible entangled phenomenon,' but this should not be confused with the conflation of sex and gender)."
I agree that intersex and trans people have a lot in common and would benefit from working together. (And I do work with global intersex advocates.) I tell people that if they are worried about genital surgeries on trans kids, they should not be--because they aren't happening. However, nonconsensual, medically unnecessary genital surgeries are being done on intersex babies and children, and that is wrong. I tell them to follow intersex advocate groups that are intersex-led. Yes, I am all about freedom, liberty, equality, and self-determination! Bodily autonomy for everyone! I'll come check out your essays. I'm always happy to learn more, espeically directly from people with lived experience.
How I’ve felt about some of my physical and mental/emotional characteristics all my life make me wonder if I’m intersex, would be interesting to check. I might ask for testing on that before I start HRT for MtF transition.
I don’t know what it takes to get your chromosomes checked, but if it could help you learn something about yourself, go for it. I know more than one trans person who is also intersex.
Thank you so much for explaining this in more detail. There are so many factors and layers - and I’m saving this for future conversations when people try to make sex a black and white discussion.
This is the most exceptionally sophisticated, and thoroughly written, article on this topic that I have ever read to date. 💯 Thank you trillions of times over for your meticulously beautiful explanation. I hope the right people read, and more importantly understand your words. 💓💓💓
Thank you! I've been teaching it in LGBTQ health classes and guest lectures for years. I love being able to "translate" scientific concepts into every day language.
This is a fascinating subject. Yes I'm glad you showed how there are 6 basic chromosomal patterns which they generally start with (not just XY and XX). And that is really only the beginning of discussion. And of course men and women both have sex hormones. Males and females both have estrogen and testosterone. However the levels are going to vary depending on the individual. The way the government is characterizing and limiting variation in sex and gender identity is harmful and ignorant. It is easy to see that Trump and his people want to structure society where anyone deviating from the "normal" pattern of male and female is excluded. They have already structured how we characterize male and female with the intention of denying any variation in sex. Gender identity is offered as only two strict narrow choices.
When I first started seeing my current transgender doctor, she asked me if I had an orchiectomy done (which is a surgical procedure removing the testicles). Because my testosterone level was very low and just about non-existent. I told her no and it was just the use of the medicines I was on which gave this result. And she explained that even cisgender women will normally have some testosterone. And in my case the level was too low even for a cisgender woman. She also explained that when my testosterone level was so extremely low I could actually be tired and not function well. Which was probably the case. So she cut back one of my anti-androgens to rebalance things. But the point I'm making is that although I was born a biological male, I am hormonally and neurochemically no longer one. While all the changes from puberty have not been reversed, I am biologically no longer male. This also does not account for changes in my brain which I'm sure have happened. The human brain is capable of neuroplasticity. And they are finding out even late in life change is possible. This has been documented in all kinds of ways from research on people who have had brain injuries into adulthood (studies on topics including phantom limb, aphasia, and other speech-related impediments from brain injury, for example). Situations where the human brain needs time to recover and will essentially rewire itself back to baseline levels.
Whatever the government decides to say, I know that I'm female. And my lab work bears that out. And my transitioning is a matter of having my body catch up with that fact. But our bodies and brains do change if we begin a medical transition involving the use of hormones. Transgender men will use testosterone, and that has a profound effect on their bodies. I have seen transgender men with beards and a beautiful gym rat buff body. They look nothing like the girls they were born as. And as a society we need to accept them. Denying science and trying to prescriptively relegate sexual variation down to strictly two sexes (from birth) is to deny and ignore the experience of some people in our populations (both myself and the writer of this post).
This is a fascinating topic. Not just for people that are transgender. But anyone trying to understand the human experience and how our bodies work. And how anomalies and aberrations occur in science and the natural world. I don't identify as intersex because I was born with genitals that appear in line and normal for a biological male. But I truly believe that we transgender people are essentially intersex in that we start out with built-in differences in our brains. And then problems start for us because our bodies do not match our sense of self and so on.
Both men and women have hormonal regulation which can sometimes show differences but still share similarities. Even hormones generally discussed as part of women's functioning have a role in men's health. The lines can be blurred depending on the function of the specific hormone and neurochemical process. For example, both men and women produce oxytocin. Oxytocin is normally discussed in regard to childbirth and women's uterine contractions. But there are all kinds of details to learn just for this one hormone alone. Men release oxytocin during sexual activity. Then there are other hormones such as prolactin, which has a role in women's lactating and breast function. And there are medicines that will affect the level of prolactin even in males (and may affect breast growth resulting in gynomastia). Such is the case with some antipsychotic or mood regulating psychiatric medicines.
Thanks for a great article.
Yes! So many different hormones. And I think there is something biological about trans people that makes us different. Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment.
When reading your work the pleasure is all mine.
When attempting to understand and explain the existence of transgender people, a biological explanation has been found by researchers. Scientists have said that not all parts of the human brain are necessarily differentiated when it comes to sex of the person. Men and women are alike in many ways. But when they are different, that differentiation has been shown in studies of transgender people. For anybody who wants to pursue the subject further, I would recommend looking into the work of Robert M. Sapolsky. He is a neuroscientist, a biologist, and one with an impressive background on human and primate biology. He's not a transgender researcher per se but he has devoted time to investigation of transgender existence with biological explanations. And what he offers is supportive of transgender people having a biological explanation for their existence. I have no doubts about this. Here is a quote from some of his work:
"And consistently, regardless of the desired direction of the sex change and, in fact, regardless of whether the person had undergone a sex change yet, the dimorphic brain regions in transgender individuals resembled the sex of the person they had always felt themselves to be, not their “actual” sex."
There is research supporting brain differences and mapping of the brain for transgender people. And what he's saying is the gender we choose to live as matches our brain sometimes and not the identity we have been given at birth (which is in conflict with our self image). Sapolsky is a professor who has taught classes and lectured at Berkeley. There are YouTube videos of his lectures. Finally, he's not some way out left winger (if doubting readers are worried about that). He doesn't need to be. Because he offers scientific investigation only. Fascinating subject matter.
So fascinating! Thank you for sharing! I definitely want to know more!
I am intersex- the kind that is obviously neither male nor female right from birth. I’m following you. Are you following me? I can tell you aren’t because you still confuse man with male. Sigh. Man and woman are genders. Male, female and intersex are sexes. Some men are male, some are female and some are intersex. Intersex is a spectrum of sexes and it affects the entire person from brain to anatomy to hormones to chromosomes. Is trans a form of intersex? Heads explode when we ask that question but I don’t give a damn. I’m scientific in my approach to the universe so there are no “off limits” questions for me! In “The Blank Slate” Steven Pinker gives us the history of the colossal 20th century error that led people to imagine that our consciousness is apart from the brain, the brain is apart from our lives and that we’re all born totally empty. In the 20th century we believed we are programmed. This is where the idea that you can turn people into something they are not by just re-programming us came from. It has been used to justify horrid abuses of all kinds of people. It was one of things that taught us the error of belief instead of the understanding through evidence that made life hell for LGBTQI and “racial” minorities. Like you say, it is pure bullshit. You and I should be talking. If you read my essays based on a lifetime of experience with and as a gay, intersex educator I think you may benefit. Http://jamescostich.substack.com. Trans and intersex ppl have so much in common it is stupid if we don’t work together. Those working to eliminate us certainly are working together. Too many intersex ppl don’t get it. I’m not one of them. Forced gender assignment done with laws, indoctrination AND knives is the 20th century history of intersex. A very great many of us transition. The difference between us and you is where we each started from! Trans start fro male or female and need to transf r their bodies to match their brains if they can. The intersex started as intersex - were forced into something sort of like male or female and man OR woman and transfer to… what if we don’t want to transfer? What if we got
To keep our bodies as born - I did- and weren’t bashed into sex gender roles? This is all about freedom, liberty, equality and SELF DETERMINATION- isn’t it? My essays include a list of intersex resources with descriptions.
Jim, I always appreciate your perspective and info! I do know the difference between male/female/intersex (sex) and man/woman/nonbinary (gender). And I am not careful about when I say "male" vs "man" very much on purpose! I believe that intersex and trans people blow up all the binaries involved there. I go past the "traditional" dichotomy of sex as bio and gender as cultural to a place where gender and sex are both cultural constructions. In one of my peer-reviewed publications, I call for epidemiologists to better understand and measure sex and gender in a way that in inclusive of trans, nonbinary, and intersex people:
"The construction of sex as a binary, dimorphic human characteristic (i.e., female or male) is challenged by studies in the genetic, epigenetic, biomedical, neurology, and neuroendocrinology fields. Rather, sex is a multidimensional,
constructed continuum of chromosomal, gonadal, fetal and pubertal hormonal, internal reproductive, external genital, and brain sex that is directly influenced by gender throughout the life course. The existence and lived experiences
of intersex people, or people with variations in sex characteristics
(VSC) and of transgender people (through hormonal and/or surgical changes) further challenge this binary. While the conflation of gender and sex is common, these concepts are neither interchangeable nor completely separate—they
are entangled. Careful attention to their operationalization, interaction, multidimensionality, and mutual influence is warranted. (Some scholars use “sex/gender” to highlight this 'irreducible entangled phenomenon,' but this should not be confused with the conflation of sex and gender)."
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38944757/
I agree that intersex and trans people have a lot in common and would benefit from working together. (And I do work with global intersex advocates.) I tell people that if they are worried about genital surgeries on trans kids, they should not be--because they aren't happening. However, nonconsensual, medically unnecessary genital surgeries are being done on intersex babies and children, and that is wrong. I tell them to follow intersex advocate groups that are intersex-led. Yes, I am all about freedom, liberty, equality, and self-determination! Bodily autonomy for everyone! I'll come check out your essays. I'm always happy to learn more, espeically directly from people with lived experience.
Thanks for this! It is a well-researched, super well-explained piece.
https://open.substack.com/pub/patricemersault/p/a-love-letter-from-a-deadly-virus?r=4d7sow&utm_medium=ios
And we haven't even started to talk about chimerae. That's an amazing rabbit hole of research reading to go down 😉
Yes!! Bio is so cool.
How I’ve felt about some of my physical and mental/emotional characteristics all my life make me wonder if I’m intersex, would be interesting to check. I might ask for testing on that before I start HRT for MtF transition.
I don’t know what it takes to get your chromosomes checked, but if it could help you learn something about yourself, go for it. I know more than one trans person who is also intersex.
And congrats on starting HRT!
You nailed it thank you 🫶🏼
Thank you!
Thank you so much for explaining this in more detail. There are so many factors and layers - and I’m saving this for future conversations when people try to make sex a black and white discussion.
You're welcome. And thank you! I hope it helps in future discussions.