I Guess I Know Which Side Won The Battle

Interesting article in Medical Daily about gender about the continuing battle inside us to keep us male or female…

Male and Female Gender Cells Require Lifelong Maintenance; Or Else You May Turn Into Someone Else
By Samantha Olson | May 25, 2014

According to a recent study published in the journal Developmental Cell, the cells that determine sex continue to perform throughout a person’s life, working to maintain sexual determination and protection against one of the sex cells overpowering and reprogramming a person’s gender.

"DMRT1 in the testis and FOXL2 in the ovary have been identified as key transcription factors responsible for maintaining sexual differentiation. What we asked in this study was how the cells maintain sexual differentiation and why their sex determination requires continuous protection," said Dr. David Zarkower, the study’s lead author and director of the Developmental Biology Center at the University of Minnesota, in a press release.
[…]
Retinoic acid (RA) is supposed to silence genes that are involved in the female sex determination process, ultimately preventing female organs from developing. At the same time, DMRT1 partners with the male sex gene Sox9 to maintain male gender after birth inside the mouse model. For a male, it is the role of three activating genes that are constantly keeping male sex hormones from turning into female sex hormones.

Hmm… I wonder what happens in trans-women when testosterone is suppressed and estrogen is introduced.