Atypical Gender Development - Gender Dysphoria

• gender dysphoria

  a condition where an individual’s gender identity does not match their biological sex

  gender dysphoria affects males more than females
• signs of gender dysphoria

  children unhappy wearing clothes of their gender assigned at birth;

  may find the development of their body distressing as it is a physical sign of their ‘wrong sex’
• how is gender dysphoria treated

  medical interventions: masculinising or feminising hormones can be taken to alter physical features, with the ultimate remedy being gender reassignment surgery
• according to DSM-V, symptoms of gender dysphoria;

  marked incongruente between one’s experience gender and primary/secondary sex characteristics

  strong desire to be rid of one’s primary/secondary sex characteristics

  a strong desire to be treated as the other gender
• biological explanations for gender dysphoria: genetic explanation

  sees the conditioned as an inherited abnormality; attention centred on gene variants of the androgen receptor,which influences the action of testosterone and is involved in masculinisation of the brain
• genetic explanation evidence - Hare et al (2009)

  looked at DNA of 112 MtF pts and found they were more likely to have a longer version of the androgen receptor gene compared to non-transgender individuals

  the effect of this abnormality is reduced action of testosterone, which may under-masculinise the brain in the womb

  however, lacks explanatory power - cannot explain why some people genetically female identify as male
• biological explanations for gender dysphoria - biochemical explanation

  significant amounts of male hormone are secreted from tests during 3rd month of pregnancy and again 2-12 weeks after birth - surges must occur at the right time and in sufficient amounts for masculinisation of infant to develop

  a lack of testosterone in a genetically male individual could result in less masculinised brain (ie smaller SDN) - female identity
• challenging evidence for biochemical explanation - Gladue (1985)

  reported that there were few, if any, hormonal differences between gender-dysphoria men, heterosexual men and homosexual men, as evidence against the influence of hormones on gender dysphoria
• challenging research for biological explanations of gender dysphoria - zucker et al (2008)

  performed longitudinalstudy on 25 gender-dysphoric females 2-3 yrs. only 12% were still gender dysphoric at age 18.

  furthermore, study on equivalent males found only 20% still gender dysphoric as adults, supporting the idea that majority of people exhibiting gender dysphoria do so in the short-term
• biological explanations for gender dysphoria - brain-sex theory

  based on the fact M and F brains are different and transgender brains do not match their genetic sex

  the BSTc in the thalamus has been implicated - BSTc is 2x as large in heterosexual male brain compared to heterosexual female brain

  may be the case an individual with gender dysphoria has BSTc that corresponds to their gender rather than sex
• research support for brain-sex theory - Rametti et al (2011)

  studied the brains of FtM pts before they had started transgender hormone therapy

  found that the white matter was more similar to that found in males, ie: those who shared their gender identity rather than their biological sex
• challenging evidence for brain sex theory - hulshoff pol et al (2006)

  found transgender hormone therapy deos influence the size of the BSTC

  suggests hormones can have an effect on the BSTc, even though it is supposedly fully developed at 5 yrs
• social explanations for gender dysphoria - learning theory

  operant conditioning

  social learning theory suggests gender dysphoria may be learned by observation and imitation

  rekers (1995) reported in 70 gender-dysphoria boys, there was more evidence of social than biological factors
• social explanation to gender dysphoria - childhood trauma/upbringing

  coates et al (1991) - conducted case study of a boy with gender dysphoria and colcluded this occurred as a result of his mother’s depression following an abortion

  they argued this caused the boy significant trauma when he was 3 yrs and that this led to a cross-gender fantasy as a way to resolve anxiety experienced
• challenging evidence of childhood trauma/upbringing

  cole et al (1997) - studied 435 individuals experiencing gender dysphira and reported there was no greater range of psychiatric conditions in families of such indiiduals compared to non-dysphoria populations
• social explanations - psychoanalytic theory

  mother-son relationships: stoller (1975) conducted clinical interviews with gender dysphoria ppts and found them to have overly close mother-son relationships, which they thought led to greater female identification and confused gender identity

  father-daughter relationships: zucker (2004) suggested that in FtM, females identify as males due to severer paternal rejection in early childhood. unconsciously think if they become males, they might gain acceptance from their father