Comment Re: Eh, well, why not? (Score 1) 186
These relate to the experience of gender. All of us experience what gender is to us, manifest in obvious through very subtle sensation and navigation through a normal day.
There are primary and secondary hormones that are pretty obvious in how they manifest from conception through puberty. Some people don't get the right doses, according to what might be termed a "normal" life cycle through those 23+ years.
This happens during periods of stress, malnutrition, trauma, the reasons can be many. A dose or two is missed, or conversely, overly-expressed for same/similar reasons.
A sufficient body of research evidence demonstrates that the brain will develop differently based on doses rendered through that period.
Let's go back to the perception by each individual of their gender and gender identity. This is a mixture of physical manifestation, perception of gender association (and therefore also, rejection). These have varying degrees of identity strength.
I'm also leaving out physiological mismatch, where hermaphrodite physiological manifestation enters into play, or ovaries found in men, or manifestations of other-gender physiology. That's not in the picture I'm describing; not enough data exists for evidence of trends in this discussion, which focuses on hormonal dose periods from conception through adult maturity.
The King of Atlantis is not real, but gender dysphoria is real, documented, and exists, just as varying degrees of sexual attractiveness preference exists, and is all around us.
It wasn't self-hypnosis, self-deception. There are those that feel that they are not their gender assigned at birth, and it's real to them, and therefore, it's a reality for them. This dysphoria is difficult for those experiencing it, because it's out of the norm. It's real to them, and has physiological and psychological origins.
Before the gender dysphoric are permitted to surgically affirm an alternate gender, it's requisite, at least in the USA, to go through quite a bit of psychological testing to ensure that the origins of the dysphoria doesn't have origins in other neurosis or psychosis, or physical manifestation in hormone over-expression.
The shape of the brain is a data point to help people understand that the sentiments and expression of dysphoria have real origins in physio-psychological realities; what they feel is real to them, and we're not necessarily the gender assigned at birth; that XX or XY at birth indeed can go sideways from "the norm" and create individuals who are gender-different from the norm.
In rare cases, the dysphoria can be detected as a physiological problem and "corrected" to strengthen the desired gender identity of an individual. Hormone replacement, augmentation, tumor removal, and more can be used to strengthen gender identity. Far more often than not, there's no physiological problem-- and it's not often a psychological problem, either-- although it can be. Every individual is different.
Some gender dysphoria comes at the hand of sexual trauma. And there is a preponderance of those with gender identity needs that has neither a physiological or psychological origin. None at all. Somehow, their body gender needs modifications to match their minds.
Much media furor has injected fabulousness and worse into the discussion, with instinctive reaction instead of skepticism and advocacy where it's needed. If an individual faces gender dysphoria, their lives can become very difficult because of the instinctive rejection they're subject to, and the hostility of those that can't accept them in what appears to be a non-normal societal role.