Discovering, and protecting, their true selves (‘Daddy had a girl’s brain in a boy’s body,’)

Boston Globe ^ | July 14, 2009 | Bella English

[ConservativeStatement]

In high school, music was Bill Zircher’s thing, mostly drums. He studied electrical engineering in college. In 1994 he married a woman he met in a band. The couple had a daughter, and Zircher was thrilled to be a father.

Dana Zircher still plays the drums, is still a self-described high-tech nerd, and still a parent. She still works as a software design engineer for Microsoft in Beverly, though she now uses the ladies’ room instead of the men’s.

As part of an aggressive grass-roots campaign, Zircher will testify today at a State House hearing in favor of civil rights legislation to protect transgender people. The bill, which has languished in committee for two years, would add gender identity to the antidiscrimination law that protects people based on sexual orientation, gender, and race. It would also amend the state hate crimes law to cover transgender people.

[Marechal]

Why, that’s famous cooking duo Johnny and Fanny Craddock.

“Always remember to put in the gorgon cheese before the zola cheese; otherwise, you’ll end up with zolagorgon cheese — and there’s no such cheese.”

[LiteKeeper]

I worked with Bill a number of years ago - never met Dana.

[Zoe Brain]

In every case of having "a woman's brain in a man's body" why don't they fix the mind?

Because we don't know how to. It will be a long time before we do.

In order to fix the mind, we'd have to fix the brain. And that doesn't mean anything as crude as surgery. We'd have to remake the whole thing, change the size of some structures, shrink others. We'd have to change the ratio of different cell types in each structure. We'd even have to change individual cells, so they have different cellular receptors for hormones and neurotransmitters.

There are really huge differences between male and female brains, far more than we suspected even 10 years ago.

The problem is... that if something goes wrong with the hormonal balance around week 12 of the gestation.. you really can end up with a male brain in a female body, or the reverse. That's regardless of the chromosomes.

Here's what Prof Ecker wrote to me (I'm a researcher in the area):

Hi Zoe,

Yes, we gave our presentation to 60 plus psychiatrists from the US, AU, FR, IT, EU, UK, Holland etc.

We spoke for 2 1/2 hours on why cross gender identity was a normal inherited variation of humans. We showed how Transgender Brains think, smell, and hear like the opposite sex. We presented internationally accepted guidelines for hormonal treatment of transsexuals to be published Summer 2009.

Here are my slides and with my participants' permission I shall send you theirs. We are now in print in the APA Syllabus and soon in the APA Journal this summer. I am checking if we were recorded.

My greatest personal compliment came from Frank Kruijver, from Holland, whose research of the human brain in TSs started it all. He thought we have taken his work very far in our understanding of the human brain. Hope you can do something with this.

Sid Ecker, M.D.

One can argue about what "natural variation" is. Is Left-Handedness a natural variation, or a disorder? How about colour-blindness? The mutation (only 10,000 years old) that causes blue eyes? Or Red Hair, a mutation found in many races? What about polydactyly, having an extra finger or toe? Anyway, I won't argue about that. Whether "natural variation" or "congenital anomaly", it's real. These are genuinely men with (mostly) female anatomy, or women with (mostly) male anatomy. The brain is cross-gendered compared to the rest, though about 1 in 10 have significant cross-gendering - "Intersex" conditions in other body parts too.

Trying to fix something like this with psychotherapy is like trying to fix a cleft palate through psychotherapy. It's not a psychiatric issue, it's a biological one - though having a cleft palate can cause real psychological issues too. You may be able to help someone live with it, but surgical correction to normalise the body is the preferred treatment. In the case of trans people, hormones and surgery work pretty well. 98% success rate, anyway.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

There are really huge differences between male and female brains, far more than we suspected even 10 years ago.

Yeah right. Not to mention the differences in serial killers and child molesters compared to normal brains.

if something goes wrong with the hormonal balance around week 12 of the gestation.. you really can end up with a male brain in a female body

But you still haven't explained why they wind up with the brain of a perverted nymphomanic instead of a church lady.

A musician's brain is different too, but it develops that way.

In order to fix the mind, we'd have to fix the brain. And that doesn't mean anything as crude as surgery.

You also cannot physically turn a man into a woman or vice versa. In either case, you have a mentally ill person with a severely mutilated body.

[massgopguy]

I heard it. “Julie” kept threatening to hang up if Jeff called it a man one more time. “Julie” also liked to say how rich he is.
A good point was made. These people continue to call themselves Transgender after the change instead of the new gender in order to maintain “we are more important than you status.”

[massgopguy]

Makes you miss “Scott NAZI.”

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I got home in the middle of the interview with “Julie”. It’s really pathetic. I miss the old days, before Christine Jorgensen.

[massgopguy]

I like the way he framed his assertion that his 18 year old daughter is supportive of him with the comment that she is also “very well off.” Think daddy used the “you’ll get cut out of the will” threat like a Senior citizen whose children take their car keys away?

[Antoninus]

This poor creature was formerly a mentally ill man. Now it's a mentally ill man in a mutilated body.

Our society is sick--perhaps terminally so.

[Antoninus]

The main designer of the ARM processor that is found in many devices like cell phones is Sophie Wilson...formerly Roger Wilson.

Your point? There are plenty of brilliant people who are also completely insane and/or morally decrepit.

[massgopguy]

I believe one of them died last week.

[Antoninus]

In the case of trans people, hormones and surgery work pretty well. 98% success rate, anyway.

What is considered "success"? If the person survives the operation and doesn't commit suicide after a few months? Mutilating someone's body to jive with their personal delusions is simply madness. It's like bleaching a black man's skin because he's convinced he's a white man.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

How in the Hell is an 18 year old “very well off” unless she inherited money from Grandma?

These semianonymous callers are often complete BSers. I remember one guy called in and said he was a gay former paratrooper who “blew every guy in my squadron”.

I don’t know how it is these days, but when I was in, casually offering someone in your barracks oral sex was a good way to get your ass kicked across the hardstand. A good reporter or lawyer knows how to cross examine someone to find inconsistencies in BS stories. Vincent LaGuardia Gambini would know.

[Zoe Brain]

But you still haven't explained why they wind up with the brain of a perverted nymphomanic instead of a church lady.

You mean, like this one?

Or perhaps this one?

Or maybe this one?

Ok, maybe this one looks a bit disreputable.

Of course, she's the one who's biologically female. But she too has the 46xy chromosomes normally only found in males - as did Miss Teen USA 1991. She's Intersexed, with a body that doesn't quite conform to either a completely male nor completely female norm. But without a Karyotype (gene test) even her OB/GYN couldn't tell that.

It's more complicated than you think.

About half the baby "girls" born with 5-alpha-reductase-2 deficiency syndrome masculinise at puberty. They get a natural sex change. Of those that do, about 2/3 are actually boys with transsexuality, and for them, it's great. A cure for being transsexual. For the 1/3 that are girls though... it's a nightmare. Unless they get surgery to stop this awful change, they usually kill themselves.

So which group is "delusional", the ones who want to stay the women they were born as, or the boys who finally get to grow a, well, whose genitalia and body changes to match their brains?

[Chode]

yup... put it back on the books.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

So which group is "delusional"

The ones born without a uterus are not women. But they don't have to tell everyone.

About half the baby "girls" born with 5-alpha-reductase-2 deficiency syndrome masculinise at puberty. ...For the 1/3 that are girls though... it's a nightmare. Unless they get surgery to stop this awful change, they usually kill themselves.

...she's the one who's biologically female. She's Intersexed, with a body that doesn't quite conform to either a completely male nor completely female norm. But without a Karyotype (gene test) even her OB/GYN couldn't tell that.

But we're not talking about millions of the above now are we.

[Zoe Brain]

Millions? Well, if you count all those with minor and asymtomatic Intersex conditions, it’s about 5 million.

But those who have severe, obvious conditions you don’t need ultrasounds, gene tests or the like to detect, maybe 300,000 at most.

That particular woman has an extremely rare condition. Only a handful of cases known in the USA. Most natural sex changes in humans go from female to male. Only about 1% go the other way.

Most women with 46xy chromosomes have CAIS, complete androgen insensitivity syndrome. There’s also Swyer syndrome - they can give birth. There’d be maybe 10,000 of those two together in the US.

CAH syndrome and De La Chapelle syndrome lead to men with the 46xx chromosomes normally found only in women.