[Crimson Dynamo]

• US researchers tested 14 female-to-male and 16 male-to-female patients
• The latest findings point towards transgender identity having a physical basis
• Dr Ricki Lewis, a geneticist, said: 'It lends legitimacy, if that needs to be added, that transgender is not a choice but a way of being'

A study was presented at the Society for Reproductive Investigation meeting in San Diego which appears to have identified a panel of genes that may provide a biological basis for gender dysphoria, which is the term used to describe those who believe their gender is opposite of their biological sex. The panel of genes includes DNA involved with the development of nerve cells and the manufacture of sex hormones.

Researchers believe the findings add weight to the idea that transgender people have “fundamental differences in their brains and biochemistry” that leads to gender dysphoria. In other words, the researchers believe that the study lends legitimacy to the idea that transgender is not a choice, as some argue, but “a way of being”.

The study examined DNA sequences of 14 female-to-male and 16 male-to-female transgender people. Researchers looked for genetic variants common in the test groups but turned up in fewer than one in 10,000 people in the wider population. During the course of the study the researchers found 30 such variants, “nine of which were in genes known to be implicated in the growth of brain cells or the production of sex hormones such as estrogen and testosterone”.

Theisen stressed that the research was still in an early phase and only a small patient population has so far been explored. Because of that, there is no proof that any of the individual variants revealed in the sample is involved in gender dysphoria. Additionally, the small study has yet to be peer-reviewed. Some of the findings in the study may be the result of “pure chance”.

https://www.biospace.com/article/new...nder-identity/