The Gender Puzzle

[andre459]

Here is a link to documentary about gender produced by the ABC's Four Corners program. A lot of it deals with people who are born with intersex conditions but it also deals with the science behind what determines gender. It's a couple of years old now so it's probably a little out of date but I still found it interesting.
One of the scientest interviewed is researching the idea that gender indentity is determined by the brain. He is studying transexauls to help determine which genes may relate to gender. Also the doco talks about studies that show how certain parts of the brain (the hypothalamus) are the same size in woman and transexuals. I remember Ziggy talking about this sort of thing a while ago.
It also makes reference to the case in Australia that is mentioned in the article posted by Groundhog. A 13 y/o going to court to be able to start hormone treatment.
Funnily enough I actually first watched it in my hotel in Bangkok on the ABC Asia chanel (I only saw half of it then).

I uploaded the doco to megaupload

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=J7QS38B9

[Road Runner]

Hello Andre459,

I have not managed to download this yet but I suspect it is the program I saw on Channel 4 in the UK.

It was very good and covered the effects of chromosomes on development.
This I personally find much more plausible than the so called effects of nurture!

RR.

[Groundhog]

I think the nature / nurture debate has evolved to discussion of percentages. Stephen Rose has written several books that discuss the impact of nurture on gene expression ... some nurture can create changes that last generations interestingly enough (at least in certain flies, and perhaps in humans as well).

I'd be curious about how aging, and the changes in the brain and hormonal activity, possibly affect sexuality. It seems that a lot of us LB admirers are middle aged, and I wonder if this is just getting more adventurous as we age, or if we actually become attracted to male appendages as a result of these changes.

... ziggy has another thread on this latter point .... perhaps he can chime in

[Guest]

Funnily, some books say there is a male menopause, some say there is not. It seems stupid it would be debated, because you just take a blood sample and you can measure your testosterone level; and menopause is a completely physical 'ailment'. Males do reduce testosterone levels with age, but nowhere near the degree females do. It starts to kick in slowly in the 40s if I recall correctly, peaking in the 50s. So if anything, you'd think we'd slow down, but it seems like the opposite, that we pick up a bit. How all this relates to LBs, I have no idea.

The 'nurture' affecting the 'nature' of the brain is something the Dalai Lama started and was ridiculed some 10 years ago or more, but now doctors are saying some of these Hindu sidhu's actually can 'nurture' their brain shapes to change, and thus, theoretically, create a physical change to a person. At least the article I read about that said this was a quite recent perspective.

I try to keep reading about the 'transexual gene' search, but basically, as Tomcat pointed out one time, scientists aren't there yet. They need another 10 years or so to figure it out (this is what they say, not me). And, as a doctor at Bumrungrad told me, 'Who is going to fund a LB research project?'. That's why if go on PubMed and try to find LB studies, there are a few totally useless ones. No one pays money to study a LB.