Gender dysphoria

• Gender dysphoria

  Some men and women experience a mismatch between their biological sex and the gender they feel that they are.

  Individuals who have gender dysphoria do not identify as their birth sex.
• brain sex theory

  gender dysphoria has a brain structure basis

  BST is the structure involved in emotional responses is larger in men than women, in transgender females its female sized

  this suggests that people with gender dysphoria , have a BST the size of the gender they identify with not their biological sex
• genetic factors

  Coolidge assessed 157 twins for evidence of gender dysphoria

  they found 62% f the variance could be accounted for by genetic factors, suggesting a strong heritable component
• social constructionism

  gender identity doesn’t reflect biological differences, they are invented by societies

  the gender confusion arises because society forces people to be male or female

  gender dysphoria isnt a pathological condition but a social phenomenon
• psychoanalytic theory

  social relationships within the family causes gender dysphoria

  gender dysphoria in males is caused by a boy experiencing extreme separation anxiety before gender identity has been established. The boy fantasises of a symbiotic fusion with mother to relieve anxiety, the danger of separation is removed.

  The consequence of this is that the boy becomes the mother and then adopts a woman's gender identity.
• A limitation of biological explanations is contradictory findings

  changes in transgender individuals brains was studied using MRI scans taken during hormone treatment

  the scans showed that the size of the BST changed significantly

  this suggests that the changes in the BST may have been the effect of hormone therapy, rather than the cause of gender dysphoria
• a strength is that there may be other brain differences associated with gender dysphoria

  There are regional differences in the proportion of white matter in male and female brains

  analysed the brains of male and female transgenders before they began hormone treatment

  In most cases, the amount and distribution of white matter corresponded more closely to the gender the individuals identified themselves as being rather than their biological sex.

  This suggests that there are early differences in the brains of transgender individuals.
• One strength of the social constructionism approach is that not all cultures have two genders.

  some cultures recognise more than two genders, such as the fa'afafine of Samoa.

  This is a challenge to traditional binary classifications of male and female.

  the fact that increasing numbers of people now describe themselves as non-binary suggests that cultural understanding is only now beginning to 'catch up' with the lived experience of many.

  This suggests that gender identity (and dysphoria) is best seen as a social construction rather than a biological fact.
• One limitation is there are issues with the psychoanalytic theory of gender dysphoria.

  does not provide an adequate account of gender dysphoria in biological females as the theory only applies to transgender women (people assigned male at birth who identify as women).

  research found that gender dysphoria in those assigned male at birth is more likely to be associated with the absebce of the father than the fear of separation from the mother, This suggests that psychoanalytic theory does not provide a comprehensive account of gender dysphoria.