Welcome to Gaia! ::

I've seen a lot of referencing of a study that supposedly showed that MtF brains are more similar to biological female brains than male ones, but hadn't ever seen anything from a direct source, so I went to look it up myself. It's pretty cool, and in fact does include FtMs in the second study:

From the first study:

"The possible psychogenic or biological aetiology of transsexuality has been the subject
of debate for many years. Here we show that the volume of the central subdivision of the
bed nucleus of the stria terminals (BSTc), a brain area that is essential for sexual
behaviour, is larger in men than in women. A female-sized BSTc was found in male-to-
female transsexuals. Our study is the first to show a female brain structure in genetically
male transsexuals and supports the hypothesis that gender identity develops as a result of
an interaction between the developing brain and sex hormones.”



From the second:

"We determined in 42 subjects the number of somatostatin-expressing neurons in the
BSTc in relation to sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and past or present hormonal
status. Regardless of sexual orientation, men had almost twice as many somatostatin
neurons as women. The number of neurons in the BSTc of male-to-female transsexuals
was similar to that of the females. In contrast, the neuron number of a female-to-male
transsexual was found to be in the male range. The present findings of somatostatin
neuronal sex differences in the BSTc and its sex reversal in the transsexual brain clearly
support the paradigm that in transsexuals sexual differentiation of the brain and genitals
may go into opposite directions and point to a neurobiological basis of gender identity
disorder."


*Shrug.* Something to toss to the gender essentialists when they whine.

Very cool. Hopefully, this won't make people try to correct the s...s...brain things, and treatment will continue as before, what with sex changes and all. XD

I got it from here, and it lists other sources (note that it's a PDF file opening as an HTML page):

http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:UK1DUxj5Dy0J:www.rmnetwork.org/downloads/ChurchandTransgendered_1.pdf+mtf+brains+similar+to+the+brains+of+biological+women&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&gl=us

Awesome stuff. This is what I've been reckoning it's probably caused by, and I've used the 'chromosome sex' versus 'brain sex' argument before in debates.

Though I do have the occasional fear that they'll scan my head and I'll turn out to have a 'girl brain' all along. That worries me.

thankyou you're a lifesaver! now i can explain my possible TG to my parents and they will be happier.