Gender Issues

Gender VS sex Gender = psychosocial (cultural) Sex = biological

Genetic code Eggs = XX Sperm = XY

Prenatal sexual differentiation In the absence of male hormones, female external genitals will develop

Prenatal structure

Structures Female = Mullerian ducts Male = Wolffian ducts

Undifferentiated stage

Early genital development

Advanced genital development

Peno-scrotal raphe

Homologus structures Clitoris = glands of the penis Scrotum = major lips

Abnormal prenatal differentiation Hermaphrodites True hermaphrodite One ovary & one testicle Pseudohermaphrodite Often two ovaries & penis like clitoris May result from Chromosomal disorder Hormonal disorder More common than true hermaphrodites

Chromosome errors Turner’s syndrome (sterile female with absent or underdeveloped ovaries) XO Normal external genitals Lack of menstruation at puberty Female gender identity http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000379.htm Klinefelters syndrome (sterile male with underdeveloped genitals) XXY http://www.nih.gov/health/chip/nichd/klinefelter/

Hormone errors (prenatal) Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS) External genitals of male fetus fail to differentiate Newborn has normal-looking female external genitals Diagnosed when menstruation does not occur

Hormone errors (prenatal) Fetally androgenized females (FAF) Masculinized external organs

John Money study of Joan/John Circumcision accident Follow-up 17 years later The effect of prenatal hormones on brain differentiation may be much more influential in gender-identity than was originally assumed.

Transvestite VS transsexual Transvestite cross dresses for sexual arousal Transsexual cross dresses to feel comfortable and congruent

Sex reassignment surgery Transsexuals or transgender Crossdresses to feel comfortable and congruent More men than women Ratio is narrowing Most preoperative transsexual persons feel they are heterosexual.

Trans gender surgery results http://www.annelawrence.com/twr/

Gender assumptions The assumptions that men “know about sex”, are responsible for doing a “good Job” with sex, and women are passive is a result of social learning, not biology.