tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089906195410551962024-03-14T04:08:49.751+00:00Cakeworld BlogGender, transgender issues, transsexualism, latest research, philosophy, news, updates and anything else …Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-71880470513616281612017-04-05T17:24:00.001+01:002017-04-05T17:24:29.374+01:00Hormone exposure before birth affects sexual orientation<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>Heya everybody,</p>
<p>I just came across a small new study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior. The study by Reinisch, Mortensen and Sanders, called <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-016-0923-z" target="_blank"><cite>Prenatal Exposure to Progesterone Affects Sexual Orientation in Humans</cite></a> examines data from older studies and comes to some interesting conclusions.</p>
<p>The study got actually some media coverage in several languages. Here is one link to the <a href="http://www.medicaldaily.com/bisexuality-may-start-during-pregnancy-children-mothers-given-hormone-more-414865" target="_blank">Medical Daily</a> and another one to <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2017/04/03/new-study-prenatal-exposure-progesterone-may-influence-adult-sexual-orientation/" target="_blank">Warren Throckmorton’s blog</a>, where the press release is quoted in full.</p>
<p>Even though the study is small, the authors believe they can draw sound conclusions. This is another piece of evidence for the influence of sex hormones in shaping the human brain and, as a result, human identity. Interestingly, while the study is about sexual orientation, the first sentence of the authors in the abstract of the study is <q>Prenatal sex hormone levels affect physical and behavioral sexual differentiation in animals and humans.</q></p>
<p>On a side note: Some time ago I encountered a particularly vile commenter on Warren Throckmorton’s blog, saying that transgender people enable the rape of minors, which shocked me quite a bit at the time. The offensive comments have been deleted, I should have taken a screenshot to document the vitriol and hate some people hold for others. However, even this type of bizzare, vicious madness is no match for terrorists, who think that their opinion is so superior to the opinion of fellow human beings that they have the right to kill them. Oh, and they not only think that, they act on it, too.</p>
<p>Take care – Peace and Light ✨</p>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-61956777459685296622017-02-21T16:56:00.000+00:002017-02-21T16:56:12.074+00:00Anybody with SRS scheduled in Thailand?<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>Heya everybody,</p>
<p>I was contacted by a start-up called <a href="https://www.junomedical.com/" target="_blank">Junomedical</a>. They work on providing independent, high-quality medical services based on the needs of patients. One of their innovations is an algorithm to help evaluate the quality of hospitals and physicians. From what I know so far, they seem to use a patient-centred approach, meaning that the patient is the customer rather than a number in a huge, state- or insurance-run health care system.</p>
<p>But that’s not what I wanted to talk about … I’ll do a post about their services in relation to gender dysphoria later. This is just a quick post to ask whether anybody from the US is scheduled to have SRS … well, I let them do the talking:</p>
<blockquote><p>The Junomedical team is looking for somebody from the US planning to get sex reassignment surgery in Thailand at the beginning of March and would be open to share this journey with others for a documentary television series.</p>
<p>We have been assured by the programme and the production company that they are very sensitive in their approach. The journalist has been recognized for her nonjudgmental approach, and she has explored everything from our universal quest for love and fulfillment, to important social issues like religious freedom and gender identity. The program transcends stereotypes, reveals surprising nuances and opens people’s minds.</p>
<p>Please just send a quick email to <a href="mailto:shaz.i@junomedical.com" target="_top">Shaz (shaz.i@junomedical.com)</a> if you're interested and we'd be happy to share more details.</p></blockquote>
<p>So, if you know anybody who might be able and willing to participate, let them know. The short time frame might be an issue, of course – feel free to share the request to increase visibilty.</p>
<p>Take care and have a good week!</p>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-80057519932705791062017-02-19T15:57:00.000+00:002017-02-19T15:57:52.775+00:00A quick update: Impact of sexual orientation, autism<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>Heya everybody,</p>
<p>I’m happy I found some time to do some updates! Finally ☺</p>
<p>I have added about ten or so new studies, but still have to upload them. I’ll do that soon, hopefully. ☺</p>
<p>A few studies that I found particularly interesting, warrant mentioning here:</p>
<p>One is <cite>Impact of Sexual Orientation Identity on Medical Morbidities in Male-to-Female Transgender Patients</cite> by Gaither, Awad, et al. (in LGBT Health, 2017). They used a large group of 330 male-to-female transsexual patients to measure sexual orientation (attraction to men, to women or bisexuality) and tried to find a correlation to other medical issues, including psychopathological problems. Their conclusion is that <q>The majority of medical morbidities are not associated with sexual orientation identity.</q> I believe this to be another nail in the coffin of Michael J. Bailey’s autogynephilia hypothesis. Differences were found with regards to depression (female-attracted male-to-female transsexuals suffer more from it) and HIV (male-attracted patients have a higher occurrence rate. Oh, and another interesting result: The share of the three sexual orientation categories was pretty much equal at about one third each.</p>
<p>Two other studies researched the link between transssexualism and autism spectrum disorders. One study (<cite>Evaluation of Asperger Syndrome in Youth Presenting to a Gender Dysphoria Clinic</cite> by Shumer, Reisner, et al. in LGBT Health, 2016) found a 23 % prevalence of autism spectrum disorders in a sample of 39 gender-dysphoric youth. The other study (<cite>Gender Variance Among Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Retrospective Chart Review</cite> by Janssen, Huang and Duncan in Transgender Health, 2016) looked at the issue the other way around, by trying to find gender-dysphoric childrens and adolescents in a large sample of autism-spectrum-disorder diagnosed patients. They found a much higher prevalence of about 5 % for gender dysphoria (in both natal males and natal females) in autism-spectrum-diagnosed patients than the 0.7 % in the control group. I believe this supports the hypothesis by Simon Baron-Cohen that autism is linked to unusual levels of sex hormones during early brain development.</p>
<p>Have a good Sunday evening! Peace and Light ✨</p>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-82752752402143286212017-01-14T19:09:00.000+00:002017-01-14T19:09:21.169+00:00Brain differences in transsexuals<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>Heya again,</p>
<p>two posts in a row (to make up for the long hiatus?) 😏</p>
<p>This study is perfect to complement <a href="http://blog.cakeworld.info/2017/01/a-youtube-video-claims-there-is-no.html" target="_blank">my last post</a>, which was also about brain differences in transsexuals.</p>
<p>A new study by Guillamon, Junque and Gómez-Gil is called <cite>A Review of the Status of Brain Structure Research in Transsexualism</cite> (Archives of sexual behavior, 2016). They find:</p>
<p><blockquote>Cortical thickness and diffusion tensor imaging studies suggest that the brain of MtFs presents complex mixtures of masculine, feminine, and demasculinized regions, while FtMs show feminine, masculine, and defeminized regions. Consequently, the specific brain phenotypes proposed for MtFs and FtMs differ from those of both heterosexual males and females.</blockquote></p>
<p>Reviewed were studies about the <q>brain structure of male-to-female (MtF) and female-to-male (FtM) homosexual transsexuals before and after cross-sex hormone treatment</q>.</p>
<p>I’d say that’s another study providing evidence for the view that brain structures of transsexuals differ from those of cisgender people.</p>
<p>Peace and Light ✨</p>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-26581030869988106892017-01-14T18:55:00.000+00:002017-01-14T18:55:46.636+00:00A YouTube video claims there is no evidence of a biological basis for transgenderism<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>Heya everybody,</p>
<p>happy new year, health and happiness to everybody ✨</p>
<p>Reader Alice, a young transgirl, was so kind to send me a link to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej3gAxjMTyg" target="_blank">a YouTube video</a> by someone named Nicolas Kilsdon-Gervais, who claims to have <q>extraordinary knowledge</q> of what he’s talking about.<p>
<p>His point is that there is no biological evidence for transgenderism (as the headline says, sorry for the repetition). He starts by citing a number of studies about brain differences between cisgender and transsexual brains. All the relevant studies he cites, except for one, have been included on my website some time ago (phew - I did a decent job then 😏).</p>
<p>The studies he starts with are: <cite>Hoekzema, Schagen, et al. (Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2015)</cite> and <cite>Savic and Arver (Cerebral cortex, 2011)</cite>.</p>
<p>These two studies are included in the <a href="http://www.cakeworld.info/transsexualism/what-is/brain-differences" target="_blank">references section 1.c: brains of transsexuals differ from their birth gender</a> of my website. Both studies do find differences between transssexual brains and brains of a cisgender control group of the respective natal gender. Here are Hoekzema and Schagen: <blockquote>However, region of interest analyses indicated less GM [gray matter] volume in the right cerebellum and more volume in the medial frontal cortex in female-to-males in comparison to girls without GD [gender dysphoria], while male-to-females had less volume in the bilateral cerebellum and hypothalamus than natal boys. Deviations from the natal sex within sexually dimorphic structures were also observed in the untreated subsamples. […] However, there are subtle deviations from the natal sex in sexually dimorphic structures, which can represent signs of a partial sex-atypical differentiation of the brain.</blockquote></p>
<p>Savic and Arver state:<blockquote>MtF-TR displayed also singular features and differed from both control groups by having reduced thalamus and putamen volumes and elevated GM [gray matter] volumes in the right insular and inferior frontal cortex and an area covering the right angular gyrus.</blockquote></p>
<p>Nicolas Kilsdon-Gervais is correct when he states that neither study finds that transsexual brains are similar or identical to cisgender brains of their target gender. Both studies explicitly say so. But what Nicolas Kilsdon-Gervais doesn’t consider properly is that some differences between transsexual brains and cisgender brains of their natal gender have been found.</p>
<p>This is what to to expect if the theory of an innate biological gender identity is true: Imagine, for example, a female brain put in a male body. The male body does flood the brain with male sex hormones. The result will be brain structures that are different to both male and female cisgender brains.</p>
<p>The next study he’s citing is <cite>Kreukels and Guillamon (International review of psychiatry, 2016)</cite> (that’s the study I have to yet include on my website). What do they say? <blockquote>Findings from neuroimaging studies focusing on brain structure suggest that the brain phenotypes of trans women (MtF) and trans men (FtM) differ in various ways from control men and women with feminine, masculine, demasculinized and defeminized features.</blockquote></p>
<p>So, it’s the same things again – the authors see differences between transsexual brains and brains of cisgender people. I think this contradicts the point Kilsdon-Gervais is trying to make.</p>
<p> I can’t analyse the full video at this time, but I think this sums up the part about brain differences. My conclusion is that Kilsdon-Gervais is wrong, and probably quite biased against transpeople.</p>
<p>Peace and Light ✨</p>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-10571853765827833902016-12-19T17:44:00.000+00:002016-12-19T17:44:40.729+00:00Jerry Coyne on sexual dimorphism and the “Gender” issue of National Geographic<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>Heya everybody,</p>
<p>After a long hiatus (work and private life tends to get in the way of my interests and hobbies), a gentle prodding by my friend Alexandra and some articles on Prof. Jerry Coyne’s website finally got me back to look after my blog and website.</p>
<p>Jerry Coyne, of course, is of new atheism fame, host of the <a href="https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">"Why evolution is true"</a> website and one of my favourite web personalities. I have been following his website (he doesn’t like it when you say blog) for years, and generally agree with his opinions, since they are fact-based and well reasoned.</p>
<p>He just published two short website articles on sexual dimorphism (<a href="https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2016/12/14/the-ideological-opposition-to-biological-truth/" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2016/12/18/i-get-pushback-on-the-sexual-selection-theory-for-sexual-dimorphism/" target="_blank">here</a>), which I found a very good summary on the public discussion about gender differences.</p>
<p>He argues that sexual dimorphism (differences between men and women), which exists clearly when you compare male and female bodies, also extends to behavioural differences. This is of course, the old nature or nurture debate – are we born a blank slate, and our behavioural traits, our personality, the things that make us an individual, are completely culturally and socially induced, or do they have a basis in our biology, in the way our brains have evolved? From the evidence I have seen, I firmly believe it’s a mix of both, and common sense seems to agree with that.</p>
<p>However, this causes problems for some who insist that men and women must be exactly alike in all respects, and that behaviour and psychology of human males and females are identical. Any differences we notice in everyday life is only a result of society and culture. This often goes along with blaming men or the patriarchy to create and enforce gender differences to keep women in their place. Unfortunately, this view sometimes goes hand in hand with a rejection of transsexual people, for they are seen as somehow misguided and enforcing the gender dichotomy, or worse.</p>
<p>Like I said before, from a scientific view, the debate has been settled – there are many studies on human newborns and on animals that show behavioural gender differences. Have a read at what Jerry Coyne says about this topic and the social discourse about it.</p>
<p>In a separate article called <a href="https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2016/12/18/national-geographic-publishes-gender-issue-still-doesnt-satisfy-sjws/" target="_blank">National Geographic publishes “gender” issue, still doesn’t satisfy SJWs</a>, Prof. Coyne writes about the January 2017 of <cite>National Geograpic</cite>, which is about gender. I haven’t read it, but I will!</p>
<p>In the article, Jerry Coyne argues that the gender spectrum is not much of a spectrum, as more than 95 % of people fall in one of the two categories male and female (the rest being homo-, bi- or transsexual).</p>
<p>I think this is wrong for two reasons. Firstly, he makes a category error in conflating different aspects of <a href="http://www.cakeworld.info/transsexualism/sexual-identity-intro" target="_blank">human sexual identity</a>, namely gender and sexual orientation and secondly, I think it’s largely a question of definitions or semantics.</p>
<p>If you class people into categories, then naturally the vast majority will fall into either the "male who is sexually attracted to females" or the "female who is sexually attracted to males" classification. If that wasn’t the case, then evolution by sexual reproduction would have done a pretty shoddy job, I think. However, this doesn’t mean there can’t be a gender spectrum.</p>
<p>If we measure sexually dimorph characteristics, i.e. the differences between men and women, including psychological and behavioural traits, and try to quantify them (very easy to do with height, for example), the result will be a normal distribution or a bell curve that has different peaks for men and women.</p>
<p>But this is true for every sexually dimorphic trait, and there are many of them. Any individual is made up from a combination of such traits, which make up his or her sexual identity. It’s this combination that makes up the gender spectrum as I see it. There is probably not a single person whose sexually dimorph traits all register at exactly the average value for the female population, and the same goes vice versa for men, of course. I don’t think the word spectrum implies an even distribution of parameters, it simply means there is a range between two extremes.</p>
<p>I fully agree with Jerry Coyne on the rest of the article, where he is taking some "social justice warriors" to task for having problems with the two covers of the magazine. Have a read, it is quite symptomatic for the challenges transsexuals face, even in a feminist and liberal culture. Transsexual women are still not seen as women and individuals can still not wear what they like. We still have lots of work to do to make this world a better place!</p>
<p>Have a merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year! Peace and Light ✨</p>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-29023873508880147252016-01-04T15:26:00.000+00:002016-01-04T15:26:51.804+00:00Gender dysphoria in children and Kenneth Zucker<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>Heya everybody,</p>
<p>To start off the new year with some good news, here is a link to Brynn Tannehill’s article <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brynn-tannehill/the-end-of-the-desistance_b_8903690.html" target="_blank">The End of the Desistance Myth</a> in the <cite>Huffington Post</cite>.</p>
<p>In her usual concise and hard-hitting style, she addresses two topics, which are separate, but linked together.</p>
<p>The first one is the question of <em>persistance versus desistance</em> when it comes to gender-queer children, i. e. the question of whether a gender-non-conforming child will grow up to be transsexual, or become content living in the gender role assigned at birth.<br>This is a vital question, of course – if it was known for sure that gender-queer children turn out to be transsexual later in life, therapy and transition could start as soon as possible, minimising the upset to the life of the child and increasing the quality of life.</p>
<p>However, one should err on the side of caution when it comes to irreversible procedures, and that’s why transsexual children are typically not medically treated. Only in adolescence, transsexual teenagers receive puberty blockers (with reversible effects) and later on, if the diagnosis persists, permanent treatment in terms of hormone therapy and surgery.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the longer treatment is delayed, the less effective it becomes, and the waiting time robs people of living vital years in harmony with their body and gender role. In addition, transition later in life typically causes more distress. Early treatment has the potential to cure transsexualism, i.e. to allow people to live a normal life not negatively affected their by gender dysphoria.</p>
<p>Transphobes are still trying to deny treatment to transsexuals outright, or to at least delay it as much as possible. To cover their real motivations, they had a number of studies to point to which show that a large number of gender-queer children will <em>not</em> turn out to be transsexual later in life (the desistors). Studies do show that a large share of gender-queer children becomes homosexual, with only a minority suffering from gender dysphoria in adolescence and adulthood. So, does this mean that gender is fluid at a young age and that gender identity felt by children is not a reliable marker for gender identity later in life?</p>
<p>Well, the answer is both yes and no. As is usually the problem with transgender studies, definitions of what transgender or genderqueer means are varied, and that affects the decisions on who to include in a study. When looking more closely, either by using a more stringent definition of transsexual or by arranging study subjects on a continous spectrum from cisgender to transgender, the picture changes. The "more" transsexual a child is, or the more strongly gender identity is expressed, the more likely is the gender dysphoria to persist.</p>
<p>Transsexual children actually know who they are, and they feel their gender identity in the same way cisgender children do.</p>
<p>Of course, one should err on the side of caution – and we do have to weigh the potential negative impact of treatment on desistors versus the positive impact of treatment of persistent transsexuals. However, the chance that a child who strongly identifies with the other gender will remain transsexual is very high, and this knowledge should be taken into account when considering what’s best for an individual.</p>
<p>The second topic Brynn Tannehill is covering is the firing of the controversial psychologist Kenneth J. Zucker and the closing of his infamous clinic in Toronto. Kenneth Zucker was one of the last public figures promoting “reparative” therapy for gender-queer children, meaning he tried to enforce gender conformity and “convert” his patients to become cisgender and heterosexual.</p>
<p>I think Kenneth Zucker is of retirement age, so his life presumably will not be hugely negatively affected by this development. I hope the same is true for the impact of his treatments on his former patients!</p>
<p>It would be great if an attempt was made in the future to statistically evaluate the success of his treatments, to at least derive something good from this situation.</p>
<p>Let’s hope the year continues with positive news!</p>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-29725754886050743732016-01-04T14:00:00.001+00:002016-01-04T14:00:22.262+00:00Great article about the differences found in transsexual brains from the Scientific American
<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>Heya everybody,</p>
<p>Happy new year to everyone! Peace, freedom and happiness to the whole world!</p>
<p>I’m trawling through the roughly one thousand unread e-mails I have (😳), and I’m happy to say that I’ve managed about half so far (😥), which added six studies to my <a href="http://www.cakeworld.info/transsexualism/other-references" target="_blank">other references</a> section. I’ll add short summaries later.</p>
<p>The magazine <cite>Scientific American</cite> has published a nice and short article summarising some of the latest findings about transgender brains. One of the studies mentioned is the 2014 study by Sarah M. Burke et al. showing the brain differences in reacting to odours, another one is the 2014 study, also by Burke, about the inner ear response to clicking noises. A great article to show to people new to the topic, as it’s brief, understandable, and lists study results from different, unexpected areas.
<br>
See: <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-there-something-unique-about-the-transgender-brain/" target="_blank">Is There Something Unique about the Transgender Brain?</a></p>
<p>Take care, peace and light ✨</p>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-50766860275535797522015-12-24T11:21:00.000+00:002015-12-24T11:21:56.783+00:00Happy holidays and merry Christmas!<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>Heya everybody,</p>
<p>I know, I know, I’ve neglected my posting here … but now it’s Christmas and I got almost two weeks off work! I promise, I’ll trail through my 711 unsorted e-mails (😖) and write some posts on what’s new. Sorry I haven’t been able to reply sooner, life keeps getting in the way!</p>
<p>Have a wonderful holiday and festive season! 🐾 ✨ 🎄</p>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-57477365831572989612015-11-08T14:43:00.000+00:002015-11-08T14:43:39.396+00:00Interview with Swedish researcher Cecilia Dhejne about her often misquoted 2011 study
<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>Heya everybody,</p>
<p>I have written a number of times about the misrepresentation of the 2011 Swedish study by Cecilia Dhejne, et al., <a href="http://www.cakeworld.info/news/2014-06-25replytopaulmchughformerjohnshopkinsheadpsychiatrist" target="_blank">(see here for an example)</a>.</p>
<p>Cristan Williams, writer at the <a href=http://www.transadvocate.com/" target="_blank"><cite>The Transadvocate</cite></a> has now gone directly to the horse’s mouth and interviewed Cecilia Dhejne in person. This has become the more necessary because trans-haters have continued their misrepresentation of scientific evidence and even claimed links between certain crimes and transsexualism. I so wonder about these people … why do they do that? Presenting facts in a dishonest way is surely the best way to show you have no ground to stand on?</p>
<p>Have a read of the interesting article at <a href="http://www.transadvocate.com/fact-check-study-shows-transition-makes-trans-people-suicidal_n_15483.htm" target="_blank"><cite>Fact check: study shows transition makes trans people suicidal</cite></a>.</p>
<p>Peace and Light ✨. Have a good Sunday!</p>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-83096538704826045182015-11-08T14:16:00.001+00:002015-11-08T14:16:57.502+00:00Danish post-SRS study without conclusive results<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>Heya everybody,</p>
<p>I know I have been behind with updating the website with the latest studies … so much going on and so little time :)</p>
<p>This is just to mention one new study from Denmark, published in the <cite>Nordic Journal of Psychiatry</cite> (2015). The study called <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/08039488.2015.1081405" target="_blank"><cite>Long-term follow-up of individuals undergoing sex reassignment surgery: Psychiatric morbidity and mortality</cite></a> investigated a small number of people (104 individuals, which is nevertheless nearly all people having undergone sex reassignment surgery in Denmark from 1978 to 2010).</p>
<p>The authors Simonsen, Giraldi, et al. found that prior to surgery, 27.9 % of the subjects had been diagnosed with psychiatric illnesses, in comparison to 22.1 % after surgery. This difference was not significant. The authors state that: <q>Despite the over-representation of psychiatric diagnoses both pre- and post-SRS the study found that only a relatively limited number of individuals had received diagnoses both prior to and after SRS. This suggests that generally SRS may reduce psychological morbidity for some individuals while increasing it for others.</q></p>
<p>Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to read and understand the entire study. I wonder whether the data has been adjusted for age, demographics, the overall increase in psychiatric diagnoses over the past thirty years, lifetime in years before and after surgery, etc. Even with that in mind, the numbers are quite small – with 29 individuals diagnosed before surgery and 23 individuals after. As usual, it would be great to have better and larger studies.</p>
<p>Peace and Light ✨</p>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-67598580931762818432015-09-27T12:36:00.000+01:002015-09-27T12:36:07.003+01:00It’s telling when people claim the current scientific consensus is an ideology<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>Heya everybody,</p>
<p>I have come across a blog called <a href="https://autogynephiliatruth.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"><cite>The truth about autygynephilia</cite></a>, which reminded me that I really need to find the time to finish my write-up on autogynephilia. The objective of the blog seems to be to aggressively push the autogynephilia hypothesis.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the subtitle <q>by far the most common reason why male transgenderists attempt to become ‘women’</q> already seems to shift the goalposts of the hypothesis as defined by Ray Blanchard in the 1990s. I guess the proponents of the hypothesis have accepted that a gender-identity driven pathway to transsexualism exists and now offer autogynephilia merely as an additional, alternative pathway. I so wish they would write a proper peer-reviewed article on what their hypothesis actually is! Anyway, if that is their claim, they need some studies to support the existence of this additional pathway leading to transsexualism.</p>
<p>But I didn’t want to write about autogynephilia today, what has raised my interest is the latest blog post on that website, called <a href="https://autogynephiliatruth.wordpress.com/2015/09/03/top-pediatricians-reject-puberty-blockers-ideology-driven-social-experiment-on-vulnerable-children-and-their-families" target="_blank"><cite>Top pediatricians REJECT puberty-blockers, ‘ideology-driven social experiment on vulnerable children and their families’</cite></a>. It quotes a letter written by three American pediatricans, two of them in leading positions, to the journal <cite>Pediatrics</cite>. In this letter, they object to treating gender-dysphoric adolescents with puberty blockers.</p>
<p>At face value, this seems to be an entirely reasonable thing to do. It is the essence of science that the pros and cons of positions are being discussed in order to come to a conclusion on what describes reality best. Here, the issue is that we have adolescents who have a condition (gender dysphoria) that reduces their quality of life (both self-reported and objectively measurable), and that we need to find a treatment that reduces their suffering.</p>
<p>The current scientific consensus is that some of these adolescents are transsexual. Hormone blockers are prescribed to block puberty (a reversible procedure) until the patient in question is mature enough to be confident that his or her gender identity will not change and is fully able to understand the impact of non-reversible procedures, such as surgery. If these conditions are met, the treatment for transsexuality is applied (i.e. irreversible hormone treatment and surgery). For the effectiveness of hormone and surgical treatment for transsexualism, please have a look <a href="http://www.cakeworld.info/transsexualism/what-helps" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
<p>What do the letter writers offer in terms of evidence for their position? In their first paragraph, they are off to a bad start, labelling gender dysphoria as a delusion and attacking the current consensus on prescribing puberty-blocking hormones because it treats puberty as if it were a disorder. This is a clear straw-man argument. Nobody says puberty is a disorder. The disorder is the conflict between biological sex and psychological gender identity. This introduction to their letter already casts some doubt on their neutrality and expertise.</p>
<p>So what evidence do they cite? Unfortunately, and fatally for their point of their view it is the well-discussed Swedish study by Dhejne, Lichtenstein, et al, published in 2011. The study with 324 participants looked at transsexuals after surgery and found they were worse off than controls. However, the study was not designed to compare the situation of transsexuals before and after treatment. That was simply not part of the study design, and to imply otherwise is dishonest.</p>
<p>However, we do have studies that do just that (check whether transsexuals are better off after treatment). For example one by Dhejne, et al from 2014 with 767 transsexuals (including the same individuals from the 2011 article) showing that 97.8 % of transsexuals were satisfied with having the surgery done – implying they judge their situation to have improved. For more information, see <a href="http://www.cakeworld.info/news/2014-06-25replytopaulmchughformerjohnshopkinsheadpsychiatrist" target="_blank">here</a>. There is more I have written about the study quoted, but it’s tiring having to discuss the same issue over and over again.</p>
<p>In addition, they criticise the lack of a good body of research on the subject (see <a href="http://www.cakeworld.info/transsexualism/what-helps" target="_blank">here</a> for relevant studies) and propose the hypothesis that <q>puberty brings relief for the vast majority of children receiving therapy for GID, because hormone surges propel the development of their brains as well as their bodies and they come to identify with their biological sex</q>.<br>To support this claim they quote two studies (Zucker, 2005 and Vigil, Oreallana, et al, 2011). The second study doesn’t address gender identity at all, and the first is simply an overview of measures pertaining to gender and sexual orientation. I fail to see how these two studies prove their point. Ideally, they’d need to have two large age-matched groups of gender variant children, one with early onset of puberty, one with late onset (natural or through puberty blockers) and show that the former group becomes more gender-conforming earlier than the latter one, all the while controlling for social and cultural factors.</p>
<p>Anyway, from what I understand the content of their letter is highly dubious and it might not even have been argued in good faith. Show me some evidence that a different type of treatment helps transsexuals more than the current treatment, and I’ll be all ears.</p>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-71450417539622898352015-09-27T11:24:00.001+01:002015-09-27T11:24:41.133+01:00Christian conference on transgender issues rejects the existence of gender identity<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>Heya everybody,</p>
<p>I have added about twenty studies today, and hope to do the upload soon! Before I give a short overview of the most relevant studies added, I just wanted to mention a different subject:</p>
<p>In a few weeks, a Christian conference on transgender topics will meet in Kentucky, USA (see <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/evangelical-transgender-conference-rejects-notion-that-gender-identity-can-change/2015/09/21/133aa41a-6089-11e5-8475-781cc9851652_story.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2015/09/23/evangelical-conference-on-transgender-confusion-has-zero-transgender-speakers/" target="_blank">here</a>). It’s organised by the <cite>Association of Certified Biblical Counselors</cite> and the <cite>Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood</cite>.<p>
<p>I’m not writing about this because I think this conference will have major relevance, I just want to point out what keeps baffling my mind – it’s the way some people think, and how fundamentally different it is from thinking grounded in reality. Apparently, there has been a statement last year by all the speakers rejecting <q>that a human being could possess a gender other than the one indicated by biological sex</q>.</p>
<p>There is a number of problems with this statement.<br>Firstly, it ignores that biological sex can be ambiguous, i.e. the body has many sexually dimorphic traits, and they can develop in contrasting directions. Biological sex is not a black-or-white issue, as people with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disorders_of_sex_development" target="_blank">disorders of sex development (DSD)</a> demonstrate. These people exist, some with visibly ambiguous sex characteristics. If biological sex determines the gender identity of a person, what is the gender identity of people with DSD?<br>Secondly, in order for this statement to have meaning, you need a definition of what is meant by gender. I fail to see how one could define the term without relating to the psychological state of a person, i.e. the gender a person feels he or she belongs to and/or has psychological similarities with. If that’s the definition of gender, you’ll find some people claim they have a gender identity different from their natal sex. This is fatal to the claim that gender identity is always identical to physical sex, unless you can show that all transsexuals are mistaken.</p>
<p>We have many studies showing that <a href="http://www.cakeworld.info/transsexualism/what-is" target="_blank">brains of transsexuals and their psychology exhibit characteristics of their experienced gender</a> and that <a href="http://www.cakeworld.info/transsexualism/what-causes" target="_blank">gender identity exists and is influenced by hormones during the development of the brain</a>.</p>
<p>Let’s wait and see what evidence this conference presents to support its claims. My guess is none.</p>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-41835700110784661462015-09-19T09:03:00.000+01:002015-09-27T11:25:25.012+01:00More evidence that surgery is beneficial<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>Heya everybody,</p>
<p>It’s the weekend and the sun is shining!</p>
<p>I have been busy updating my list of studies, but I just wanted to quickly focus on new studies and articles about the effectiveness of treatment.</p>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">
Italian researchers Prunas, Hartmann, et al. have published a study called “Psychosocial outcome and quality of sexual life after sex reassignment surgery: An Italian multicentric study” in the <cite>Journal of Sexual Medicine</cite> (2015). Their long-term follow-up of about 77 transsexual respondents showed that <strong>regrets after surgery are exceedingly rare (less than 1.5 %)</strong>, satisfaction is high and quality of life increases.<br>While the results are very positive, the study suffers from the same issue many long-term studies have – low response rates. Only 37 % of questionnaires were returned. With low response rates it’s anybody’s guess whether the participants of the study were representative of the overall population of treated transsexuals. However, this is the data available.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">
Finnish scientists Mattila, Heinonen, et al. have published an article in <cite>Duodecim</cite> (2015) stating that <q>Gender dysphoria is <strong>effectively alleviated</strong> by sex reassignment treatments. Quality of life is improved among the majority of patients, and regrets are rare.</q></p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">
Lauren Schmidt and Rachel Ravine from Yale respectively Pennsylvania State University in the US have published a review of <q>longitudinal outcome data evaluating psychological well-being and quality of life among transgender individuals who have undergone cross-sex hormone treatment or sex reassignment surgery</q> in <cite>Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinics of North America</cite> (2015). Unfortunately, the published abstract doesn’t include results and I have not been able to get hold of a full-text copy. If you know what their conclusions are, please send me a mail.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Oh, and in other news the Vatican has stated <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/sep/03/transgender-people-cannot-be-godparents-says-vatican" target="_blank">transsexuals can’t become godparents</a>. Because Jesus said so. No wait, he didn’t. But it’s something they are really sure of, like they are or were of the existence of demons, geocentrism, infallibilty of the pope, unbaptised children going to hell or limbo, etc. Anyway, naturally, your body’s appearance must determine your fate – the soul, the mind, the person, the inner qualities are all completely irrelevant in this theology.</p>
<p>Well, back to the real world – I haven’t yet uploaded the latest additions to my reference pages, but am hopeful to do that this weekend. Take care!</p>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-52795530163260096992015-09-13T17:06:00.000+01:002015-09-13T17:06:05.689+01:00Are we becoming better at accepting reality for what it is?<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>Heya everybody,</p>
<a href="http://xkcd.com/1235/" target="blank" title=”mouseover text”><img alt="XKCD cartoon “Settled”" src="http://www.cakeworld.info/XKCD_settled.png" style="margin:auto;width:75%;height:auto;float:none;display:block"></a>
<p>I love the cartoon above – it’s so true, and yet nobody is talking about the fact it illustrates.</p>
<p>For decades, we have seen miracles, magic and the paranormal retract at the same rate humanity gets better at documenting things. These days, most people carry around devices that can instantaneously record photos and videos. However, UFO, alien, bigfoot and ghost sightings, sun miracles, Marian apparitions, etc. have just not kept up the pace!<a href="#fn1" name="fr1"><sup>[1]</sup></a></p>
<p>I wonder whether our technical progress will lead to less superstition and gullibility in the future. I also hope the Internet might have the same effect. Some people claim the reason why sects such as Mormons, Jehova’s Witnesses or Scientology are finding it more and difficult to gain converts is that the web exposes their claims, and allows them to be evaluated in the open. Open access to knowledge reduces mysteries and secrets and tears the veil from poorly-evidenced statements and assertions.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e2bA3tTYow" target="_blank">Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press</a> led to one of the major revolutions in history – first came the reformation, then enlightenment and humanism. Let’s work towards the Internet having a similar effect!</p>
<p>Peace and Light 👻 👼 👽 👾 👿 😏</p>
</div>
<br><br><br><br>
<div lang="en" style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:small;line-height:125%">
<hr style="text-align:left;margin-left:0;background-color: rgb(91,155,213);width:33%">
<p style="margin:0.75em 0 0.75em 1.5em; text-indent:-1.5em">[<a href="#fr1" name="fn1">1</a>] That’s not to say I reject such claims out of hand – I’m fascinated with the unusual, the extraordinary and the paranormal, and I would like to be the first person to know if something exists outside of our current accepted school knowledge. However, existence needs to be proven with evidence. I’m thankful for anybody working on trying to expand and improve our knowledge.</p>
</div><br><br>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-80411613577531296532015-09-12T16:13:00.001+01:002015-09-12T16:13:51.805+01:00Diagnostic Manual DSM-5 <div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>Heya everybody,</p>
<p>Finally I have been able to put some work in and caught up on something I meant to do for a while!</p>
<p>I got hold of the full text of the latest edition of the <cite>Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders</cite>, the DSM-5, which was published in 2013 by the <cite>American Psychiatric Association (APA)</cite>, making it the most up-to-date medical categorisation manual available. It replaced DSM-IV from 1994. The handbook sets standards for both the definitions and diagnoses of mental illnesses and health-related conditions.</p>
<p>I have put the chapter about gender dysphoria on my website and also quoted the subcategory about transvestism, to provide a differentiation. The text is excellent not only for symptoms and diagnostic criteria, but also for definitions and explanations. If you want to know the latest scientific consensus on what gender dysphoria is, <a href="http://www.cakeworld.info/transsexualism/dsm_5" target="_blank">have a read</a>! If I have time, I’ll write an article on the changes from the old DSM, and my interpretations of the current status.</p>
<p>The DSM-5 will also provide an important basis for the <cite>International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD)</cite>, maintained by the <cite>World Health Organization (WHO)</cite>. The WHO is currently updating the ICD-10, which was published in 1990. ICD-11 is expected for 2017.</p>
<p>Have a good weekend ✨</p>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-9554032740772522362015-08-27T11:03:00.000+01:002015-08-27T11:10:52.828+01:00Body identification and more<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>Heya everybody,</p>
<p>Sorry I haven’t been posting in a while, but I have been working in the background, adding new studies to my pages. I hope to make some major updates, but I really need to find the time first.</p>
<p>I have also been working on autogynephilia – an issue I thought went down the drain long ago together with many other unscientific made-up psychological stories … but a discussion on a blog showed me that people still keep flogging that dead horse, and worse … transphobes continue to base their hate<a href="#fn1" name="fr1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> on the autogynephilia hypothesis. As you know from my website, I’m all about evidence-based medicine and treatments, and I have been looking some more into autogynephilia, and there just aren’t any supporting facts. I checked: Since Ray Blanchard’s original work in 1989 (which was refuted so authoritatively by <a href="http://www.genderpsychology.org/autogynephilia/index.html" target="_blank">Madeline Wyndzen</a>), there was no significant clinical study supporting the hypothesis. The last major episode of the drama was of course triggered by J. Michael Bailey when he published a book about his musings about autogynephilia and his “research” in Chicago bars in 2003. One would have thought that he or his supporters would have been able to come up with some new evidence or facts since, but … nothing … nada … anyway, I’ll write more about it, and supply you with a list of references.</p>
<p>Anyway, in brief: Here is an <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-015-0596-z" target="_blank">interesting study</a>, published in the <cite>Archives of Sexual Behaviour</cite>, August 2015, by Feusner, Dervisic, et al., including well-known gender dysphoria researchers Cecilia Dhejne and Ivanka Savic. They studied the body identification of female-to-male transsexuals and found a difference to cisgender individuals. Apparently transsexuals identify more with body images congruent with their gender identity.</p>
<p>Peace and Light ✨</p>
</div>
<br><br><br><br>
<div lang="en" style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:small;line-height:125%">
<hr style="text-align:left;margin-left:0;background-color: rgb(91,155,213);width:33%">
<p style="margin:0.75em 0 0.75em 1.5em; text-indent:-1.5em">[<a href="#fr1" name="fn1">1</a>] Actually, one of the commentators in that <a href="
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2015/06/11/what-kind-of-woman-is-caitlyn-jenner-part-one-of-a-qa-on-autogynephilia-with-michael-bailey/" target="_blank">blog discussion</a>
advocated the <em>killing</em> of transsexuals, which shook me to the bone.</p>
</div><br><br>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-60362228160656709122015-06-14T13:27:00.000+01:002015-06-14T13:27:35.777+01:00Transphobic media continue to use Walt Heyer as source<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>Heya everybody,</p>
<p>I can spend only little time today on updates, but did want to quickly put a post on with regards to the exposure Walt Heyer got in the media (see <a href="http://www.onenewsnow.com/culture/2015/06/07/sex-changes-fixed-nothing-says-regretful-transgender" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/2150822/sex-change-regret-the-other-side-of-the-transgender-story/" target="_blank">here</a>,
<a href="http://www.gospelherald.com/articles/55972/20150609/former-transgender-walt-heyer-to-bruce-jenner-my-sex-change-surgery-fixed-nothing.htm" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://www.christiantoday.com/article/former.transgender.tells.caitlyn.jenner.suicide.always.a.risk.after.gender.change/55749.htm" target="_blank">here</a>), following the public outing of Caitlyn Jenner as transgender.</p>
<p>Walt Heyer has been discussed several times on this blog; he is a person who was falsely disagnosed as transsexual, underwent sex reasignment surgery, only to revert back to his former, natal sex as a male.</p>
<p>Again, this post can only be short, and I don’t want to link back to my previous Walt Heyer articles, I just want to make the following very basic points:</p>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">If you have a successful medical intervention that produces a 95 % success rate, you will naturally have 5 % of people whose lifes have not been improved by the treatment. This should be obvious to anybody.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">If you then start presenting people to the public who have not been helped by the procedure, without mentioning that the particular case is a rare event, you are doing a disservice to the public and you are lying.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">If a treatment fails to improve your quality of life because you have been <em>falsely</em> diagnosed and therefore received the wrong treatment, then that’s tragic. This means we have to work harder on improving the success rates of medical diagnoses.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">However, if this leads you to the conclusion that the condition you have been falsely diagnosed with doesn’t exist or that the treatment you received in error is not effective for the diagnosis, then you are either very, very stupid or dishonest.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">If you have been wrongly diagnosed with a health condition, and you are subsequently portrayed in the media as a <em>former sufferer</em> of this condition, then somebody is misrepresenting facts or lying outright.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>These are the main points, which should be obvious to anybody with an honest and open mind.</p>
<p>Oh, one of the articles says: <q>Heyer cited reviews of more than 100 studies of transgender individuals that found that sex change surgery is not ‘clinically effective.’</q> Well, I’m not aware this many studies even exist on the topic.</p>
<p>For 83 studies, reviews and articles on the topic, please have a look at the <a href="http://www.cakeworld.info/transsexualism/what-helps/srs" target="_blank">sex reassignment surgery section</a> of my “What helps?” pages, which paint a very different picture of the matter. To me, Walt Heyer is either grossly misprepresented, or he is lying. And this misinformation does cost lifes.</p>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-19669975706610044302015-06-13T13:07:00.000+01:002015-06-13T13:58:30.744+01:00J. Michael Bailey is still at it; continues to claim transwomen are lying<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>Before I continue on the real science, and the facts and evidence surrounding transsexualism, I have to get this out of the way:</p>
<p>Discredited researcher John Michael Bailey, infamous for his autogynephilia hypothesis and his highly “scientific” research in Chicago bars, who has caused so much harm for transsexuals, and poisoned the relationship between transgender patients and psychologists like no other, has been given <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2015/06/11/what-kind-of-woman-is-caitlyn-jenner-part-one-of-a-qa-on-autogynephilia-with-michael-bailey/" target="_blank">a platform</a> on a <cite>Patheos</cite> blog called <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/" target="_blank"><cite>Warren Throckmorton</cite></a>.<a href="#fn1" name="fr1"><sup>[1]</sup></a></p>
<p>Apparently age, the avalanche of scientific evidence against his hypothesis, and the failure of others to repeat his results, have not caused him to reconsider.</p>
<p>He continues to spout his untruths and accusations. When transsexual Caitlyn Jenner says she was always gender dysphoric and experienced no erotic component of her transsexualism, John Michael Bailey naturally knows better: <q>I believe it is very likely that Caitlyn Jenner’s transition was motivated by intense autogynephilia.</q></p>
<p>Oh, and he also knows how Caitlyn Jenner feels about the photos of her that appeared in <cite>Vanity Fair</cite>: <q>I can assure you […]: Caitlyn’s [sic] thrilled with that attention. It’s an autogynephilic fantasy.</q></p>
<p>I have no words for this person.</p>
<p>We don’t we all don’t start remote-diagnosing people, assume they lie, replace their self-reported motivations with made-up just-so stories unsupported by evidence, and call others sick and sex-crazed individuals. Oh, and then we naturally fake astonishment and surprise at those who call us out on our unethical and harmful behavior.</p>
</div>
<br><br><br><br>
<div lang="en" style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:small;line-height:125%">
<hr style="text-align:left;margin-left:0;background-color: rgb(91,155,213);width:33%">
<p style="margin:0.75em 0 0.75em 1.5em; text-indent:-1.5em">[<a href="#fr1" name="fn1">1</a>] There is a lot of evidence against autogynephilia on the <a href="http://www.cakeworld.info/transsexualism" target="_blank">reference pages</a> of Cakeworld. For a summary of the scientific view, please see Madeline H. Wyndzen’s article series <a href="http://www.genderpsychology.org/autogynephilia/index.html" target="_blank">Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Autogynephilia […]</a>.</p>
</div><br><br>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-87254731158789800662015-06-13T12:32:00.001+01:002015-06-13T12:32:29.258+01:00Tons more studies!<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>Heya everybody,</p>
<p>lots of new studies added (I’ll do the upload later), and more to come later, I hope: </p>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">The chemical bisphenol A has been under suspicion for a while to alter gender-dimorph structures of the brain, since it mimics estrogen. Yurekli, Kutbay and Saygili discuss in a new article (in <cite>Endocrine Abstracts</cite>, 2015) whether it could cause gender dysphoria.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">In <cite>Leisure/Loisir</cite>, 2015, Muchicko, Lepp and Barkley publish a study that finds that transsexuals exercise less than cisgender people; the reasons are less social support and poor self-perception.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">Sadly, a study done by Klaver, Vlot, et al. (in <cite>Endocrine Abstracts</cite>, 2015) finds that hormone therapy for transsexuals increases weight 😏. While weight goes up for both male-to-female and female-to-male transsexuals, the percentage of body fat increases for the former and reduces for the latter.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">Nota, Klaver, et al. find in <cite>Endocrine Abstracts</cite> in 2015 that prolactin levels in male-to-female transsexuals increase during hormone therapy, whereas they decrease in female-to-male individuals. For male-to-females, final levels are higher than those of cisgender women. The prolactin levels of female-to-males don’t quite reach the levels of cisgender men.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">A metastudy by Horbach, Brouman, et al. (in <cite>The Journal of Sexual Medicine</cite>, 2015) tried to compare the results of different surgical techniques for vaginoplasty. They found that penile skin inversion is most common, but bowel vaginoplasty does not seem inferior.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">Alcón and Molina publish their find in <cite>Medwave</cite>, 2015, that transsexuals suffer more from body dissatisfaction than a healthy control group, but not quite as bad as cisgender people who are being treated for body dissatisfaction.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">In a somewhat weird study from Russia by Volkova, Porksheyan and Saida Kanaeva (in <cite>Endocrine Abstracts</cite>, 2015), gender dysphoria is seen as the causal factor for interrupted menses in a natal female.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">Davey, Arcelus, et al. observe that self-injury is quite common among transsexuals. The prevalence is 19 %. Published in <cite>Health & Social Care in the Community</cite>, 2015.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">In the <cite>Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science</cite> (2015), prolific researcher Melissa Hines publishes a chapter summarising what we know about the development of gender in humans, including the contribution by sex hormones before and shortly after birth.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">A Turkish study by Turan, Poyraz and Duran reports a case study (in <cite>Eating Behaviors</cite>, 2015) about an eating disorder in a transsexual male. The pathology improved with hormonal and surgical treatment.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">An important and large study with over 1000 participants by Andersen, Zou and Blosnich (<cite>Social Science & Medicine</cite>, 2015) shows that the inferior health of individuals belonging to sexual minorities can be explained by maltreatment early in life. This further shows how important tolerance and support is, and that working towards a better society is essential.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">Becker, Nieder, et al. report in <cite>Archives of Sexual Behaviour</cite> (2015) that transsexual persons suffer from body image problems. No <q>subgroup differences for sexual orientation (FtM and MtF) and Age of Onset (FtM) were found.</q></p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">A British study by Gunn, Goedhart, et al. (in the <cite>Archives of Disease in Childhood</cite>, 2015) comes to the conclusion that using hormone blockers to stop puberty in transsexual adolescents is <q>effective and well–tolerated</q>.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">In the <cite>International Review for the Sociology of Sport</cite> (2015) a study by hargie, Mitchell and Somervill is called <cite>‘People have a knack of making you feel excluded if they catch on to your difference’: Transgender experiences of exclusion in sport</cite>.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">In a dissertation at the <cite>University of Cambridge</cite>, Miranda L. Abild researches the gender identity development in natally female children with heightened prenatal androgen exposure: <q>Analyses reveal reduced gender typicality and gender contentedness in girls with CAH together with reduced female gender identity and increased cross-sex gendered behaviour.</q> This adds further evidence to the biological origins of gender identity and for a probable cause of gender dysphoria.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">At the 97th annual meeting of the <cite>Endocrine Society</cite> in San Diego, 2015, Boh, Turco and Comi presented a study finding that subcutaneous hormone administration for male transsexuals is safe.</p></li>
</ul>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-46336174231325840792015-06-07T11:18:00.000+01:002015-06-10T17:18:58.928+01:00New link between genes and transsexualism<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>The Spanish team of scientists researching gender dysphoria have just published a new find, linking differences in a gene to transsexualism.</p>
<p>The study called <cite>The CYP17 MspA1 Polymorphism and the Gender Dysphoria</cite>, published in <cite>The Journal of Sexual Medicine</cite> (2015), was headed by geneticist Rosa Fernández. The studied genetic polymorphism on the CYPA1 gene had been previously <q>linked to higher levels of serum testosterone, progesterone, and estradiol</q>. The find is exciting because hormone levels in the brain have been shown to shape gender identity, linking this genetic polymorphism to a plausible pathway causing transsexualism.</p>
<p>Rosa Fernández has previously published other studies about other genetic links to transsexualism. In 2013, she found that <cite>The (CA)n Polymorphism of ERβ Gene is Associated with FtM Transsexualism</cite>, whereas the 2014 study <cite>Association Study of ERβ, AR, and CYP19A1 Genes and MtF Transsexualism</cite> produced negative results.</p>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-40924019731965114832015-06-07T10:03:00.001+01:002015-06-07T10:17:32.131+01:00New effect found<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<a href="http://xkcd.com/1531/" target="_blank" title="This well-known effect has of course been replicated in countless experiements."><img alt="XKCD – The BDLPSWDKS Effect" src="http://www.cakeworld.info/XKCD%20the_bdlpswdks_effect.png" style="margin:auto;width:75%;height:auto;float:none;display:block"></a>
<p>By the <a href="http://xkcd.com/" target="_blank">xkcd webcomic</a>.</p>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-78757523515070571742015-06-06T17:25:00.000+01:002015-06-06T19:12:09.675+01:00Ignorance and arrogance harms people – A response to the “Public Catholic” blog<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>Heya everybody,</p>
<p>I have to put more new studies on, but I found a link to an article called <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/publiccatholic/2015/06/trans-what-did-you-say-trendy-medical-malpractice-on-the-mentally-ill/" target="_blank"><cite>Trans … What Did You Say? Trendy Medical Malpractice on the Mentally Ill</cite></a> on the well-known Patheos blog platform in my inbox that needed a reply first. The article is pretty disgusting, linking gender dysphoria to all kinds of rare and extreme illnesses, a relatively modern version of equating gender-dysphoric people to people who think they are Napoleon or a rabbit. I don’t want to discuss these comparisons here, I just want to highlight one specific point.</p>
<p>The author, Rebecca Hamilton, asserts firmly that hormonal and surgical treatment for transsexuals is an outrageous medical malpractice, surgical mutilation, dismemberment, disfigurement, cruel, destructive, life-long hormone abuse. I wish she told us how she really feels instead of beating around the bush like this! :)</p>
<p>However, what’s relevant for the point I want to make is that she’s absolutely sure hormonal and surgical treatment for transsexuals is wrong: <blockquote>It is wrong; it is flat-out wrong, to support the surgical mutilation, dismemberment and disfigurement of healthy people for the purposes of pretending that this is a ‘treatment’ for their illness. I cannot and I will not support something so cruel and destructive to the person as this.</blockquote></p>
<p>I just can’t my head around the logic behind this. In reality, where most of us live, things are so simple:</p>
<ol>
<li><p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">People suffer</p></li>
<li><p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">Our goal should be to make people suffer less</p></li>
<li><p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">We try different interventions, and see how effective they are</p></li>
<li><p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">We apply the most effective intervention, and keep perfecting it, while looking for better interventions</p></li>
</ol>
<p>And that’s really all you need to understand. How hard can it possibly be?</p>
<p>People with gender dysphoria suffer. We can measure this objectively, by asking them, by rating their quality of life, by looking at their suicide rates, by looking at their social adjustment, etc. We can try different treatments on these people, and then measure their quality of life again. Then we know which treatments work and which don’t. That’s it. That’s really it. How can anybody argue against this process?</p>
<p>If you have no heart, and no empathy, and you can’t figure why society should help people who suffer, you even can put monetary values on things. A healthy, well adjusted person contributes +X euros to society, a poorly adjusted person costs society −Y euros. A specific treatment costs −Z euros, and increases the societal contribution of the treated person to some figure between –Y and +X.<a href="#fn1" name="fr1"><sup>[1]</sup></a></p>
<p>I’m not sure how to put it more clearly. All that transsexual individuals are asking for is that we look at how the suffering caused by gender dysphoria can be relieved. I don’t think that anybody is fixated on a specific cure, all we should do is go where the evidence leads us. And <a href="http://www.cakeworld.info/transsexualism/what-helps" target="_blank">overwhelming evidence</a> shows that hormones and surgery can help. Other things that help greatly are the reduction of discrimination, hate, bullying and more tolerance and acceptance.</p>
<p>Oh, before I end this post – pro tip for Rebecca Hamilton: One such step towards a more charitable society would be to stop calling people mentally ill <a href="http://www.cakeworld.info/transsexualism/what-is/differences-to-psychopathology" target="_blank">without having sufficient evidence</a>.</p>
</div>
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<div lang="en" style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:small;line-height:125%">
<hr style="text-align:left;margin-left:0;background-color: rgb(91,155,213);width:33%">
<p style="margin:0.75em 0 0.75em 1.5em; text-indent:-1.5em">[<a href="#fr1" name="fn1">1</a>] I know that in a world with limited resources, we have to make cost/benefit analyses to base decisions on. The polemic at the beginning of this paragraph is reserved for people who are unable to see that helping distressed people is a good thing in its own right.</p>
</div><br><br>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-30234379978800105122015-06-05T09:28:00.000+01:002015-06-05T09:30:26.894+01:00Speaking from the Margins – Trans Mental Health and Wellbeing in Ireland<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%; color:rgb(82,65,43)">
<p>I have only now added the 2013 report by the <cite>Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI)</cite>, after a friend pointed it out to me. It seems appropriate since Ireland is in the news after the marriage equality referendum!<a href="#fn1" name="fr1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> The report lists the results of the largest survey of transgender people in Ireland to date. It’s stunning in confirming how effective and beneficial treatment for transsexuals is, and sad in stating how discriminated-against transsexuals are, and how poor their quality of life before transition and treatment is. Here are some of the key findings:</p>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;"><q>Almost 80 % of participants had contemplated suicide and half of those had made at least one attempt.</q></p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;"><q>More than 80 % of participants avoided some public places or situations due to fear of harassment.</q></p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">84 % report that they are more satisfied with life after transition, while 5 % report their satisfaction has reduced.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">75 % report their mental health improved after transition, with 6 % saying it has worsened.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">81 % say that their suicidal thoughts decreased after transition, 4 % report an increase of suicidal thoughts.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">87 % report that their satisfaction with their bodies increased as a result of hormone therapy, 2 % reported they were less satisfied.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">90 % reported a higher life satisfaction due to taking hormones, compared to 7 % who were less satisfied.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">92 % said they had no regrets about their physical changes due to treatment, 1 % had major regrets.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The report also covers other areas extensively, such as the experiences of the transsexual community when seeking medical help, and other areas of discrimination. Have a <a href="http://www.teni.ie/attachments/5bdd0cd5-16b6-4ab6-9ee6-a693b37fdbcf.PDF" target="_blank">read</a> for yourself!</p>
</div>
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<div lang="en" style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:small;line-height:125%">
<hr style="text-align:left;margin-left:0;background-color: rgb(91,155,213);width:33%">
<p style="margin:0.75em 0 0.75em 1.5em; text-indent:-1.5em">[<a href="#fr1" name="fn1">1</a>] It’s great that the majority of voters in Catholic Ireland voted for marriage equality. It seems so simple to me – if we allow some people to marry the person they love, we shouldn’t deny it to others. I guess the chain of reasons of no voters broke down somewhere. After all, it is hard to provide sound evidence for: god exists, god doesn’t want homosexuals to marry, we reliably know god’s will and we have good reasons to follow god’s orders. 😏</p>
</div><br><br>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-508990619541055196.post-43536987498850660132015-06-04T15:09:00.000+01:002015-06-07T10:08:58.885+01:00Epigenetics influences gender identity, societal stigma harms transsexuals and more<div lang="en" style="font-family: Open Sans,Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 140%">
<p>Heya everybody,</p>
<p>I have been able to add some more articles and studies. The upload will follow soon; here are the summaries of the most relevant additions:</p>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">It is interesting how much public discourse and perception can differ from the current scientific consensus. While many people are still not accepting that an innate mental gender identity exists (thereby negating the lived experience of pretty much all transsexual people), scientists are getting ever closer to finding out how gender identity is established in the brain.<br>In an article by Leslie K. Feinberg (in <cite>Science Signaling</cite>, 2015), the mechanism of how epigenetics influences gender identity in rats is laid out. Altering the epigenetic mechanism in female rats produced “neuronal morphology, protein marker patterns, and adult anxiety-related and sexual behavior more typical of male mice”. And, even more remarkable, this process is <q>not restricted to the sensitive perinatal period, suggesting that enduring DNA methylation maintains the female phenotype in the brain.</q> <strong>This means we have evidence for a biological mechanism that shapes brain gender and is ongoing throughout adult life! </strong></p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">In a 2015 article in <cite>The University of New South Wales Law Journal</cite>, Felicity Bell perfectly sums up the situation of gender-dysphoric children: <q>[Gender dysphoria] involves ‘clinically significant distress’. Unfortunately, children with gender dysphoria (and indeed many gender diverse young people) are almost by definition at a high risk of depression and anxiety, as well as social isolation, self-harm and suicide. This is unsurprisingly often connected to the discrimination and abuse suffered by these groups.</q></p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">Iranian researchers Azizi, Karimi and Iravani (in the <cite>International Journal of Review in Life Sciences</cite>, 2015) come to the conclusion that life skill training can improve the quality of life for transsexuals.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">In the <cite>Acta Otorrinolaringológica Española</cite> in 2015, Casada, ÓConnor et al. find that the surgical technique of Wendler glottoplasty is effective in feminising the voice of male-to-female transsexuals.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">Yang, Manning et al. contributed another study (in <cite>LGBT Health</cite>, 2015) to the question of whether psychological difficulties of transsexuals are directly related to transsexualism or indirectly via societal stigmatisation.<br>They find that <q>Higher levels of exposure to [transgender-related stigma] were independently associated with higher levels of depression […] and anxiety […], adjusting for self-reported health and sociodemographic co-variates.</q><br>This adds further evidence to the claim that “transsexuals are not tormented by their condition: it is their condition, which prompts society to torment them“ (Sarah Seton).</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">Spanish researchers Guzmán-Parra, Sánchez-Álvarez, et al. have looked at a larger number of transsexual individuals in Andalusia and found highly interesting results (in the <cite>Archives of Sexual Behavior</cite>, 2015).<br>Firstly, the social adjustment of male-to-female transsexuals was lower than that of female-to-males, secondly, depression was high in both groups (and personality dysfunctional traits and unemployment status were associated with depression). This adds yet more evidence to the theory that the suffering of transsexuals is caused by society.<br>Thirdly, and lastly, they confirm the shockingly high figures of suicide attempts for transsexuals, which have been reported in many previous studies. In their study, they find <strong>22.8 % had attempted suicide and 52.3 % had suicidal thoughts</strong>. This underlines the urgent need for support transsexuals have. I’m always surprised how many people don’t get this simple fact – here is a group of people that is suffering, and that’s why society should help.</p></li>
<li style="list-style-type: square;color:rgb(91,155,213)">
<p style="color:rgb(82,65,43); margin-bottom: 0.75%; margin-top: 0%;">In a large and interesting study published in 2014 (in <cite>Psychology and Sexuality</cite>), authors Joel, Tarrasch et al. find that the internal feeling of gender identity is on a spectrum and not binary. <q>Sexual orientation was not a major contributor to the perception of gender identity […].</q> This further underlines the usefulness of separating the concepts of sex, gender, gender role and sexual orientation.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>There’s more to come, I promise ☺</p>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10404641467758576387noreply@blogger.com2