Gender dysphoria

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  • Created by: KCharlish
  • Created on: 12-04-16 17:22

AO1 1 Mental illness

  • GD is caused by mental illness

Coates - 

  • studied a boy with GD 
  • Defeneive reaction to his mother's depression following an abortion
  • this trauma may have led to a cross gender fantasy as a means of resolving the anxiety
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AO1 2 Male hormones

  • abnormal prenatal exposure to male hormones
  • CAH occurs when ** individuals have high levels of male hormones - develop a small penis 
  • - sex typed as a male
  • gender dysphoria
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AO1 3 Transsexual gene

  • born with a transsexual gene

Hare et al

  • studied 112 MtF trans
  • found a version of the androgen receptor gene that caused reduce action of the male hormone testosterone
  • may have an effect on gender development in the womb
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AO1 4 Brain sex theory

  • BSTc is 2x as large in heterosexual men as in heterosexual women and contains 2x the number of neurons

Zhou et al

  • the number of neurons in the BSTc of MtF trans was similar to that of females
  • may be the size of BSTc correlates with preferred sex rather than biological sex
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AO2 1 Little research support (Psych explanations)

Cole et al

  • studied 435 individuals experiencing GD
  •  range of psychiatric conditions displayed no greater than found in normal population
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AO2 2 Lack of research support (male hormones)

Dessens 

  • 250 genetic females with CAH who were raised as females.
  • Despite prenatal exposure to male hormones 95% were content with female gender role.
  • Remaining 5% did experience gender dysphoria
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AO2 3 Challenge of the brain sex theory

Chung

  • noted the differences in BSTc volume between men and women does not develop until adulthood.
  • whereas most trans report GD in early childhood
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AO2 4 Research support

Rametti 

  • studied the brains of FtM before they started transgender hormone therapy
  • in terms of white matter - FtM individuals had a more similar pattern to individuals who share their gender identity than genetic sex
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IDA Solutions

  • Important in providing information about the effects of erroneous sex assignations and determining the best solutions.
  • Organisations campaign for the rights of intersex individuals and rely on research evidence to show both the biological ans social influences
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AO2 5 Types of gender dysphoria

  • There are different types of gender dysphoria

Blanchard

'Homosexual transsexuals' - wish to change sex as they are attracted to men

'Non Homosexual transsexuals' - wish to change sex as they are sexually aroused by the thought of themselves as a woman.

  • Suggests that there needs to be different explanations
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IDA Sensitive nature

  • may be good for trans because if a biological cause is identified it may help acceptance
  • might harm individuals born with the abnormality because it might be assumed that transsexualism is inevitable
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