Feminine Essence Concept of Transsexuality - Neuroanatomic Research

Neuroanatomic Research

According to Bailey and Triea, one of the predictions based on the feminine essence theory is that male-to-female transsexuals would possess female rather than male brain anatomy. A widely cited research study of this topic examined the brain anatomy of six deceased male-to-female transsexuals, who had undergone during their lives hormonal treatment and surgical sex reassignment. The study reported that a brain structure called the "central subdivision of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis" (BSTc), which is larger in typical males than in typical females, was in the female range in the transsexual subjects. The interpretation and the methods of that study have been criticized, and the finding continues to be a matter of debate.

Neurological research has found that the brains of transsexuals differ in a number of ways. For example a study done on the brains of non-homosexual transsexuals using MRI and pheromones as stimuli found that transsexuals process smelling androgen and estrogen in the same way that women do. Previous research by the same team found that homosexual males also process smelling the pheromones of the sexes in a way that is similar to that of women. Work done by Simon LeVay had previously found that the hypothalamus of homosexual males has a region which is similar in size to that of heterosexual females. This is not so in non-homosexual males. Last but not least a study done by Hilleke E Hulshoff Pol reached the conclusion that the brain does change in overall volume and the volume of its parts with the use of cross-sex hormone supplements. In the case of male-to-female transsexuals, the brain assumes the proportions of a female brain.