A recent investigation conducted in the Augusta University School of Medicine, Georgia has identified a number of variants in estrogen signaling pathways that play a key role in determining whether the brain will be male or female.
The researchers suspected that in most people who experience gender dysphoria, There is a biological component, the hypothesis from which they started to carry out this study that has included 30 transgender people.
Gender dysphoria is a current reality that affects more than 3,000 people in Spain. To date, scientific evidence suggested that genetics played a key role, pointing to the androgen receptors. However, the researchers in this study have focused on estrogens, female sex hormones that are also present in men..
Every day, new research provides new and important findings that force professionals to update themselves through postgraduate degrees in psychology, with the aim of providing these patients the best care in your transition.
The team of researchers has found that there are 21 variants in 19 genes of estrogen signaling pathways that play an essential role in the masculinization of the brain. These genes are involved in critical brain estrogen spray just before or after birth, so they directly interfere in determining whether the person will feel like a man or a woman.
In the case of natal males with gender dysphoria (people whose sex at birth is male, but identify as female), researchers note that critical exposure to estrogen does not occur or is altered, so the brain is not masculinized. In the case of natal women with gender dysphoria, the opposite occurs, since exposure to estrogen does not occur.
This dysphoria occurs because the gender they feel inside does not correspond to the external sex. According to Dr. Lawrence Layman, one of the principal investigators on this study, it does not matter what sexual organs the person has, since what really influences is the process by which estrogen or androgen (hormones that are converted into estrogens in the brain) “masculinizes” the brain in this critical period.
Therefore, the objective of the hormone therapy and surgery is to help the body match the gender that the person truly feels.
Researchers analyzed the DNA of 17 transgender women and 13 transgender men, confirming the analysis using Sanger sequencing, a method for detecting genetic variants..
After this, they compared the results with a group of 88 cisgender individuals (whose gender identity coincides with their sexual phenotype), confirming that the variants found in people with gender dysphoria were not present in this.
Previously, studies carried out in animals allowed to identify four brain areas with pathways leading to the development of a male and female brain, so the researchers focused directly on these to verify that they were also present in humans.
On the other hand, the critical period occurs during adolescence, since puberty is a period in which sex hormones arise naturally and awareness of sexuality begins to awaken..
Transgender people experience higher rates of discrimination and violence, which translates into a increased risk of depression, substance use and suicide attempts.
In fact, although there have been advances in terms of acceptance by society, even today there are still certain stigmas that influence the appearance of mental illness.
Approximately 0.5 to 1.4% of people born male and 0.2 to 0.3% born female meet the criteria for gender dysphoria. According to experts, the main underlying problem today is the general lack of understanding about the biological basis of gender identity disorder.
Therefore, studies like this are a first step to delve further into the subject, since, although the research was made up of 30 individuals, it represents the largest sample in this type of study to date, managing to classify the published findings as preliminaries.
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