atypical gender development

• gender development is a mismatch between a persons biological sex and the gender they feel they are
• the bed nucleus of the stria terminals (BST) is involved in emotional responses and male sexual behaviour in rats. This area is larger in men than women and is female-sized in transgender females. People with gender dysphoria have a BST which is the size of the sex they identify with, not the size of their biological sex. This fits with people who are transgender who feel, from early childhood that they were born the wrong sex
• Researchers studied 157 twin pairs and suggest that 62% of these cases could be accounted for by genetic variance. Other researchers found that 39% of their sample of monozygotic twins were concordant for gender dysphoria but non of the dizygotic twins were
• gender identity is ‘invented’ by societies, not biological. Gender dysphoria arises because people have to select a gender. Therefore, dysphoria is not pathological but due to social factors. For example, McClintok studied biological males in New Guinea born with female genitals due to genetic condition. At puberty, genitals change and accepted as females than males
• male gender dysphoria in terms of separation anxiety:

  Researchers suggest gender dysphoria in biological males is caused by a child which experienced extreme separation anxiety before gender identity has been established. The boy fantasises about a symbiotic fusion with his mother to relieve his anxiety and remove his fear of separation. As a result the boys ‘becomes’ the mother and thus adopts a female gender identity
• One limitation is that brain sex theory assumptions have been challenged. Researchers scanned transgender individuals brains during hormone treatment and found the size of BST changed significantly. Other researchers examined the BST post-mortem and after transgender individuals had received hormones during gender reassignment treatment. This suggests that differences in the BST may have been an effect of hormone therapy, rather than the cause of gender dysphoria
• One strength is that there may be other brain differences. Researchers analysed brain of both male and female transgender individuals, crucially before they began hormone treatment as part of gender reassignment. In most cases, the distribution of white matter correspond 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 is evidence of more than 2 gender roles. Some cultures recognise more than 2 genders. Increasing numbers of people now describe themselves as non-binary, showing cultural changes now match the lived experience of many. This suggests that gender identity and dysphoria is best seen as a social construction than a biological fact
• One limitation is issues with psychoanalytic theory. This theory doesn’t explain gender dysphoria in biological females and only applies to transgender females. Researchers found that gender dysphoria in transgender females is due to the absence of the father rather than fear of separation from the other. This suggests that psychoanalytic theory doesn’t provide a comprehensive account of gender dsyphoria