Are Trans Women Genetically, Biologically, And Anatomically Women?

This article is not intended or coming from a place from a ‘smarty pants know-it-all’. This is my own personal perspective and the understanding of *myself* as a transgender woman. It does however reflects the exploration of other trans women and the research of medical professionals I have read over the past several years.

I see it everywhere, MTF (male to female). For me, I want to clarify those three little words. What it doesn’t mean is that I am transitioning from a male to a female. That would be impossible, unless I was not born transgender in the first place. It would imply that I was born a male and changed my mind somewhere along my life’s path to become female. Is that what I am? A man who got tired of being a man and decided to flip gender sides? Nope. That’s not it.

I am not transitioning from gender to gender. Quite frankly, I find the acronym MTF very confusing, misleading and I personally find it offensive to suggest I am moving from one gender to another. I was born transgender. Period.

Transgender people are not new or rare. Transgender people have been a part of society in every culture at every time. Being transgender is not a matter of choice. It is not a fad or a whim. It is an overwhelming sense that our gender is not the one on our original birth certificate. Gender is not about whom we’re attracted to — it’s about who we are.

Let’s get something straight from the get-go. Transgender people are not mentally ill nor do they have a mental disorder. The World Health Organization uses gender incongruence to describe people whose gender identity is different from the gender they were assigned at birth. People who experience intense, persistent gender incongruence are often diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

I was born transgender. One may ask, how can that be possible? You were born with a penis, right? So hey, you are a male. Well, not exactly. I was born with male anatomy. But, that’s about as far as it goes.

When I was born, it was typical of doctors and midwives of the era to assume you were male if you have a penis and testicles. But if the doctor could have had the tools to look into my brain, that declaration would have been quite different, I assure you.

Male and female brains are structually different, and fascinatingly, the brain structure and brain activity of transgender people more closely resemble those of their authentic gender versus their assumed birth sex.

Neurologists have proven that the brain structure and activity of transgender women have distinguished them from cisgender male subjects. Looking at postmortem brain tissue of transgender women, it was found that they had clusters of cells, or nuclei, that more closely resembled those of a typical cisgender female brain.

I see it all the time, the two phrases GG (genetic women) and bio-woman (biological woman) in reference to cisgender (cis) females (non-transgender female), you know… the female humans who were anatomically born with a vagina and identify as female. But is it accurate to say that trans females weren’t born as a genetic or biological female? Absolutely not! You see, there are major differences between anatomy, genetics and biology.

Genetics
There are people with XY chromosomes — which makes them genetically male — who look, act and feel like women because their bodies cannot react to male hormones. Trans woman have a high frequency of particular DNA variants of genes that would alter sex hormone signalling while they had been developing in utero which affect brain function and behavior.

Transgender females have a significant over-representation of twelve genes that are involved in processing sex hormones. These twelve genes are significant genetic differences between transgender females and non-transgender males. The genetic variations affect the male brain’s ability to process androgen, meaning that the brain develops differently in a way that is less masculine and more feminine contributing to gender dysphoria in transgender females.

These twelve functional genetic variants in transgender females correlate with genes involved in regulating the sex hormones estrogen and androgen. What makes a person feel like a male or female is complex and involves interactions between many different genes, much like height, weight or blood pressure. These genes are known to be involved in sex hormone signaling, contributing to a person’s ultimate sense of gender identity. Genes in relation to gender entrenches that gender is fixed and rigid — something you are born with. These variations are the genetic reason why certain people experience gender dysphoria. So yes, trans females are genetically females.

Biology
Biology is the study of the complexities of the human body, for example cell structure. Human biology is the interdisciplinary study of our species, ranging from molecules and cells, through tissues and systems to the interactions of humans with their environment. Gender has deep biological roots. Being transgender is heavily influenced by biology. So, are trans females born biologically female? Regardless of the biological makeup of a trans female — she remains a female with her biology. Therefore, defining her as a biological female.

Anatomy
Anatomy is the structure of the human body parts. These body parts consist of the internal and exterior parts of the human body. Anatomy is all about the structures morphology, texture, color and locations that is all the physical structures that we can see grossly. Defining gender as a condition determined strictly by a person’s genitals is based on a notion that doctors and scientists abandoned long ago as oversimplified and often medically meaningless. The idea that a person’s sex is determined by their anatomy at birth is not true, and we’ve known that it’s not true for decades, says Dr. Joshua D. Safer, an endocrinologist and executive director of the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at Mount Sinai Health System in New York. He is also president of the United States Professional Association of Transgender Health.

In conclusion, I was born genetically and biologically female with male anatomy.

Originally published at https://medium.com on August 22, 2019.