Harry Benjamin's Syndrome

WOW! Once again Europe leads the way. I heard some rumors of this at First Event but this is the first time I looked I up on the internet.

Harry Benjamin's Syndrome is an intersex condition developed in the early stages of pregnancy affecting the process of sexual differentiation between male and female. This happens when the brain develops as a certain sex but the rest of the body takes on the physical characteristics of the opposite sex. The difference between this and most other intersex conditions is that there is no apparent evidence until much later after the baby is born or even as late as adolescence.

Harry Benjamin's Syndrome was known in the past with many different names, being Transsexualism (ICD-10) the most common used in relation with it.

"Transsexualism (HBS) is now regarded by the world's leading experts in the field as another of the many biological variations that occur in human sexual formation -an intersex condition- where the sex indicated by the phenotype and genotype is opposite the morphological sex of the brain. People with the condition of transsexualism (HBS) are therefore born with both male and female characteristics and, like many others with atypical sexual development, seek rehabilitation of their phenotype and endocrinology to accord with their dominant sexual identity; an identity which is determined by the structure of the brain. Transsexualism (HBS) is about being a particular sex, not doing it. It is also about recognizing gender norms, not challenging them." -Karen Gurney & Eithne Mills. 2005. Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law, Vol 12, No #1 & #2