Heya everybody,

If I counted correctly, I now have 626 scientific articles on this website! It keeps growing! And for the first time in weeks, I feel like I’m getting on top of things again… we’ll see. ☺ Many of the recently added studies have to do with gender differences, personality-wise or as seen in the brain. Some do touch on issues relevant to transsexualism, many of those can be found on the ““What causes transsexualism?” reference pages, the other articles are on the “Other references” pages.

I don’t plan to go any deeper into gender differences than I now have, my interest in the issue came about due to an interesting e-mail discussion I have been having… more on that in a later post. First, a brief overview about some of the most interesting newly added studies:

• A new study by Pasterski, Zucker, Hindmarsh et al. (Springer, 2014) on girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia finds evidence “that girls exposed to high concentrations of androgens prenatally are more likely to show cross-gender identification than girls without CAH or boys with and without CAH. Our findings suggest that prenatal androgen exposure could play a role in gender identity development in healthy children […]”.

• Another brand new study by Hahn, Kranz, Küblböck et al. (Cerebral Cortex, 2014) finds more evidence that brains of transsexuals have unique features, making a biological cause of gender dysphoria even more plausible: “Specifically, our data suggest that network parameters may reflect unique characteristics of transgender patients […]”.

• Bouman, Richards, Addinall et al. (Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 2014) discuss whether the practice of requiring two referrals for sex reassignment surgery is ethical when compared with other non-reversible surgeries that are being carried out without such hurdles.

• In 2011 (The Journal of Neuroscience), Morgan and Bale show that prenatal stress can cause dysmasculinisation in second-generation children via epigenetics (!).

• In a similar vein, McCarthy, Auger, Bale et al. found in 2009 (The Journal of Neuroscience) that “many steroid-induced epigenetic changes are opportunistic and restricted to a single lifespan, but new evidence suggests endocrine-disrupting compounds can exert multigenerational effects”.

• Schwerdtfeger, Heims and Heer published in 2010 (Accident; analysis and prevention) that prenatal androgen exposure is linked to traffic violations for frequent car drivers (!).

That’s it for now… sorry that this overview lists only six studies… I added at least 80 or so. I wish there was more time! Take care ☺