Biology of Gender Identity

Little is understood about transgendered and transsexual individuals in today’s society. The most that people may hear about them is via news articles and television programs. However, there is not a lot known about what it means biologically for these individuals. Even in my own experience, I knew very little until a comic I read daily tackled the issue and introduced it to its readers. Living with gender identity issues often accompanies a host of psychological issues as well as social concerns. Some of these concerns include standards of care when interacting with healthcare professionals.

We understand that hormones have an effect on how people may act or behave. Female rats were known to mount males and females in a posture known as lordosis as a result of increased testosterone (Garrett, 2011). Feminization or masculinization isn’t as simple as the presence or absence of a hormone. For instance, estradiol executes the final step of masculinization, but it is also needed for feminization (Garrett, 2011). Another affect of hormones is how men react to increased testosterone or estrogen. Evidence supports that girls have a greater verbal aptitude than boys. However, in men who identify sexually as women and take estrogen, they increased in verbal fluency tasks (Garrett, 2011). Research on whether testosterone increases aggression on the other hand, is inconclusive.

The article I researched focuses on focuses on standards of care for transgender, transsexual, and gender-nonconforming people. The main goal of the research is to provide direction to healthcare professionals to make them feel safe. Since they are a minority, many professionals do not interact with them. Also, most of the research comes from a Western perspective. Much like the rest of society, transsexual, transgender, and gender-nonconforming individuals need access to evidence-based healthcare and social services (Coleman et al., 2012).

The differences between the textbook reading and the article I selected are a matter of how much is focused on the biology versus the actual psychology and welfare of the individual. The textbook gives a high level overview as well as some possible causes. The article I selected focuses on providing services as well as explaining what each issue is and how they differ. For instance, gender non-conformity is not the same as gender dysphoria (Coleman et al., 2012). This is important when it comes down to treatment. Treatment considerations typically include psychotherapy, hormone therapy and/or surgery (Coleman et al., 2012). Gender dysphoria is only experience by some gender-noncomforming people at some point in their lives (Coleman et al., 2012). Though treatment outcomes and effectiveness is not part of the article, suggestions for long-term care and recommendations are made for the treatment of those individuals and well as ethical questions and side effects of hormone therapy.

Other discussions within my article include assessments and treatment of children who experience gender dysphoria. The phenomenology in children and adolescence are typically the same, but in adolescence, the gender dysphoria will typically disappear before puberty (Coleman et al., 2012). However, in others it will intensify as the body develops. Research has shown that children as young as two can exhibit features that indicate gender dysphoria (Coleman et al., 2012). This typically progresses into behavior that is typically nonconforming such as preferring clothes and games that’s associated with the opposite sex. There is also the difference of behavior and wishes being different and severe discomfort with their sex characteristics. The article is important because it also addresses issues related to inexperienced clinicians who may feel that gender dysphoria is a result of delusions (Coleman et al., 2012).

Both sources both agree that gender nonconformity presents social and psychological issues throughout life. One of the examples in our text speaks about Brenda, who changed her name to David and underwent estrogen treatment (Garrett, 2011). The psychological backlash included being angry or depressed even after marriage. He eventually took his own life. My article states that those who have received sexual reassignment surgery much like David have higher rates of mortality suicide and suicidal behavior (Garrett, 2011). Hence the reasons for psychotherapy also being a part of the treatment plan.

What I have understood from my research is that there is a need for healthcare professionals to be knowledgeable about transgender, transsexual, and gender nonconforming peoples as much as any other group. Psychology plays a large role in how they are able to go about day to day. I also learned that some of the signs start off in childhood and progress from there. Treatments provide a patch to a larger problem but do not necessarily eliminate the problem. It makes it so they are able to go by day-to-day as “normal” individuals. Although I cannot understand the discomfort they may feel, it has given me a lot more knowledge and information into what it means to deal with these issues and the struggle that they go through to feel comfort.

References

• Coleman, E., Bockting, W., Botzer, M., Cohen-Kettenis, P., DeCuypere, G., Feldman, J., et al. (2012). Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender-Nonconforming People, Version 7. International Journal of Transgenderism, 13(4), 165–232. doi:10.1080/15532739.2011.700873 ↩1 ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7
• Garrett, B. (2011). Brain and Behavior: An Introduction to Biological Psychology (3rd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage. ↩1 ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5