"What's missing from this story- what's unfortunately almost always missing from any discussion of GID revisions in the DSM, including discussion from the committee members- is any mention of the actual science. People can argue about whether the revisions are helpful or politically disadvantageous, and those are legitimate concerns, but at the end of the day the DSM is supposed to be science based. When the furor over Blanchard's taxonomy first blew up publically, the science was beginning to point in the direction of cross gendered brain wiring as the cause of transsexuality. In the seven years since, it's become conclusive. A small partial list of the studies confirming this are toward the bottom of this post:
http://aebrain.blogspot.com/2010/03/we-do-things-differently-here-in.html
TThe owner of this site has got many, many more from multiple research groups referenced in various posts I don't have the time to dig out. They all support the same conclusion- transsexuality is caused by cross-sexed brain wiring, and sexual orientation, contra Blanchard, has nothing to do with it.
And that's not even mentioning the fact that "autogynephilia" was never actually differentiated from "normal" female sexuality in Blanchard's studies. It has since been found that if you apply his criteria to cisgendered women, over 90% would be classed as "autogynephilic"
http://home.netcom.com/~docx2/AGF.htm
(Note that Blanchard's original AGP and transsexual typology study used what Moser characterized as the "common" definition rather than his "rigorous" one)
Unfortunately, Blanchard and Zucker have managed to insulate themselves from reality with their political influence within the field of psychiatry, so all this will be completely ignored for this round of DSM revisions. "
Male-to-female transsexuals show sex-atypical hypothalamus activation when smelling odorous steroids by Berglund et al Cerebral Cortex 2008 18(8):1900-1908;
ReplyDeleteMale–to–female transsexuals have female neuron numbers in a limbic nucleus. Kruiver et al J Clin Endocrinol Metab (2000) 85:2034–2041
Sexual differentiation of the human brain: relevance for gender identity, transsexualism and sexual orientation. Swaab Gynecol Endocrinol (2004) 19:301–312.
A sex difference in the human brain and its relation to transsexuality. by Zhou et al Nature (1995) 378:68–70.
A sex difference in the hypothalamic uncinate nucleus: relationship to gender identity by Garcia-Falgueras et al Brain. 2008 Dec;131(Pt 12):3132-46.
A polymorphism of the CYP17 gene related to sex steroid metabolism is associated with female-to-male but not male-to-female transsexualism by Bentz et al Fertility and Sterility , Volume 90 , Issue 1 , Pages 56 - 59
Androgen Receptor Repeat Length Polymorphism Associated with Male-to-Female Transsexualism by Hare at al in Biol.Psych. Vol65, Issue 1, Pp 93-96