there is social stigma that transsexualism is simply a lifestyle choice. It is not....

Researchers find 'transsexual gene' | World News | News.com.au

Researchers find 'transsexual gene'

By Melissa Jenkins

AAP

October 27, 2008 12:08am

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THE nature versus nurture debate rages on but a new study of transsexuals has shown genetics plays a key role in determining our sense of gender.
In the largest genetic study of its kind, 112 male-to-female transsexuals took part in a study involving several Melbourne research bodies and the University of California, Los Angeles.

Researchers measured the variation in the androgen receptor gene, which is involved in the functioning of the sex hormone testosterone.

DNA samples from the transsexuals were compared with the samples from 250 typical men.

Researchers discovered the transsexuals were more likely than non-transsexuals to have a longer form of the gene.

"We think these genetic differences might reduce testosterone action and under-masculinise the brain during foetal development," Prince Henry's Institute researcher Lauren Hare said.

Lead researcher, Associate Professor Vincent Harley, head of molecular genetics at Prince Henry's Institute, said there had long been debate about the causes of transsexuality. <
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"There is a social stigma that transsexualism is simply a lifestyle choice. However, our findings support a biological basis of how gender identity develops," he said.

He said researchers were recruiting transsexual people for another study and hoped to double the sample size and examine other genes.

Assoc Prof Harley said it was important to replicate the findings in other populations.

Researcher Trudy Kennedy, director of the Monash Gender Dysphoria Clinic, said the study supported other evidence that genetics and brain gender were important in transsexuality.

"This is something that people are born with and it's certainly not a lifestyle choice as some have suggested," she said.

Julie Peters, a transgender person, said she knew from as young as three or four years old she did not fit into being a boy.

"I have always had the personality of a girl, I suppose is the way I perceive it and even from a very young age, three or four, I was really mad at people for making me a boy," she said.

"I personally think it (gender) is a combination of both (nature and nurture).

"You are born with a predisposition to have a certain personality and then depending on the culture you are brought up in your personal situation it becomes active in a particular way."

The study research was jointly funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and the US National Institutes of Health.