It Is That Old Battle Again: Nature v. Nurture

How many times have you heard the old arguments… “God made Man and Women” or “God makes no mistakes” or any other of those types of binary arguments; well folks let me introduce you to a gynandromorphic  Cardinal.

Amazing! The Cardinal is literally half male and half female.

What is gynandromorphy? Well basically gynandromorphy happens when the zygote divides and an error occurs, the chromosomes are not copied correctly (a very good description can be found here). Gynandromorphy should not to be confused with chimerism where there is actually two distinct sets of DNA (you can read about it here).

Nature works in mysterious ways. Consider this about a study that was done in Spain…

Antonio Guillamon's team at the National University of Distance Education in Madrid, Spain, think they have found a better way to spot a transsexual brain. In a study due to be published next month, the team ran MRI scans on the brains of 18 female-to-male transsexual people who'd had no treatment and compared them with those of 24 males and 19 females.

They found significant differences between male and female brains in four regions of white matter – and the female-to-male transsexual people had white matter in these regions that resembled a male brain (Journal of Psychiatric Research, DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2010.05.006). "It's the first time it has been shown that the brains of female-to-male transsexual people are masculinised," Guillamon says.

In a separate study, the team used the same technique to compare white matter in 18 male-to-female transsexual people with that in 19 males and 19 females. Surprisingly, in each transsexual person's brain the structure of the white matter in the four regions was halfway between that of the males and females (Journal of Psychiatric Research, DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2010.11.007). "Their brains are not completely masculinised and not completely feminised, but they still feel female," says Guillamon.

Researchers have found also that when they studied intersex babies who were given surgery at birth to "correct the birth defect" knew their true gender. In a study reported in the New York Time by Dr. Reiner of babies with underdeveloped male genital who were surgically made into girls at birth. He found,

As part of a research study, I've personally seen and assessed 400 children with major anomalies of the genitals. Of those, approximately 100 might be called "intersex." Our findings have been many and complex. The most important is that about 60 percent of the genetic male children raised as female have retransitioned into males.

There is something in their brain that was telling them that they were male while they had the physical appearance of a female. The interview ended with this question and answer…

Q. What conclusions do you draw from your study?
A. That sexual identity is individual, unique and intuitive and that the only person who really knows what it is is the person themselves. If we as physicians or scientists want to know about a person's sexual identity, we have to ask them.

Now there is a novel idea… let the person determine their own gender.

Nature is really amazing! Evolution is never done; nature is always trying new combinations to see what works and what doesn’t. I feel sad for the people who argue for a gender binary, they fail to see the beauty.