We hear from time to time that researcher have found the cause of us being trans and just recently another study has claimed that they found the cause.
We cannot let us fall in to the trap that there is only one way a person can be trans, something as complex as gender dysphoria probably has more than one cause and they may be interdependent. For example maybe you need this genetic contribution and something in your childhood to trigger it. Or there could be other causes and not just one cause, for example the mother might have taken DES during pregnancy as some research has shown as a possible causation.
We cannot allow healthcare providers or insurance companies to say “Well you can’t be trans because you do not have this genetic condition.”
The Use of Whole Exome Sequencing in a Cohort of Transgender Individuals to Identify Rare Genetic VariantsA Newsweek article helps put this in to perspective.
By J. Graham Theisen, Viji Sundaram, Mary S. Filchak, Lynn P. Chorich, Megan E. Sullivan, James Knight, Hyung-Goo Kim & Lawrence C. Layman
Scientific Reports volume 9, Article number: 20099 (2019)
Abstract
Approximately 0.5–1.4% of natal males and 0.2–0.3% of natal females meet DSM-5 criteria for gender dysphoria, with many of these individuals self-describing as transgender men or women. Despite recent improvements both in social acceptance of transgender individuals as well as access to gender affirming therapy, progress in both areas has been hampered by poor understanding of the etiology of gender dysphoria. Prior studies have suggested a genetic contribution to gender dysphoria, but previously proposed candidate genes have not yet been verified in follow-up investigation. In this study, we expand on the topic of gender identity genomics by identifying rare variants in genes associated with sexually dimorphic brain development and exploring how they could contribute to gender dysphoria…
[…]
Limitations of this studyA primary limitation of this study was that it included only 30 subjects, though this does constitute a larger sample size than the majority of prior studies utilizing WES to study gender dysphoria. It is for that reason that we consider the above findings to be preliminary in nature.
Scientists have shed new light on why people may have gender dysphoria—a condition experienced by some transgender people—by identifying "rare" gene variants linked with brain development.Okay there might, just might be a link there but as the authors of the study say this is only with 30 subjects which leads a lot to be desired.
By studying the DNA of 30 transgender men and women who had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, they found what they described as 21 "rare" variants in 19 genes, in pathways in the brain associated with the sex hormone estrogen.
[…]
"Many transgender individuals recount knowing, as early as 5-years-old, that their internal sense of gender and their external sex did not match," Theisen explained.
"Because of this, we thought that there was almost certainly a biologic component to gender identity."
The authors stressed in the study that they were not looking for a so-called "transgender gene," which might wrongly suggest that those with this gender identity are ill in some way.
We cannot let us fall in to the trap that there is only one way a person can be trans, something as complex as gender dysphoria probably has more than one cause and they may be interdependent. For example maybe you need this genetic contribution and something in your childhood to trigger it. Or there could be other causes and not just one cause, for example the mother might have taken DES during pregnancy as some research has shown as a possible causation.
We cannot allow healthcare providers or insurance companies to say “Well you can’t be trans because you do not have this genetic condition.”
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