An interesting article about gender, with some explanations of hormone experiments on rats.
http://www.flyfishingdevon.co.uk/salmon/year1/psy128psychose...
Keep in mind that some of the data is more than 30 years old; however, it's still interesting to read.
I ended up there when I was trying to find out some of the effects of prepubescent castration in humans - basically, whether or not it would be the same as total androgen insensitivity. (apparently not, at least, not without providing estrogen therapy to trigger puberty)
Comments
Prepubescent castration
Interestingly enough, there's a body of evidence on the effects of prepubescent castration, courtesy of the controversial fad for Castrati in centuries past. Unsurprisingly, the operation itself was fraught with danger, so not all potential Castrati ended up with a singing career. They were also condemned to a life of celibacy, since for obvious reasons they couldn't consummate a marriage (and were generally forbidden from marrying for that reason).
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Castration
won't necessarily prevent erection, it's just that the owner only fires blanks!
It does however, produce all sorts of other complications without some form of hormone supplement, including osteoporosis.
Angharad
Angharad
I hit another site, which I
I hit another site, which I didn't bother linking to, and it had a reasonably good breakdown of three different groups of (relatively) modern eunuchs. One was a Russian religious sect, one was the Ottoman empire, and the third was the last of the Chinese Emperors. By the beginning of the 20th century, there were still some left, and they did research on them - prostate, etc.
Many of them _did_ retire, marry, and adopt children. Most of them did _not_ have a penis to get an erection. Everything was removed. Penis, testicles, and scrotum. The fatality rate was apparently less than 2% (from the procedure).
All showed evidence of various types of osteoporosis, as Angharad has stated.
Long-Term Consequences of Castration in Men: Lessons from the Skoptzy and the Eunuchs of the Chinese and Ottoman Courts
http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/84/12/4324.full
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Castration
I'd had the drive to be a woman for all of my life, but felt that my circumstances precluded transition.
In addition, I was an internet porn addict, and it caused such guilt that I quietly planned to have the castration done and simply not tell the family. I planned to take just enough either Testosterone or Estrogen to prevent Osteioporosis. I had no plans to transition because I valued my family too much.
All that fell apart though when they found out, and threw me out. Those who were supposed to help me, did not, and eventually I decided I'd just go ahead with it.
Now I seldom have any drive at all, and good ridance. I am the best woman I can be.
Gwen
Nearly stopped reading
...when I came across THAT man. Turned out that they also included Diamond's demonstration of the dishonesty in that case. Would have been nice if they had added, after the reference to Money, something along the lines of "But see Diamond, blah blah, below"
Keep in mind, I was looking
Keep in mind, I was looking for physiological data, not psychological.
Most of what I was reading and found interesting is very difficult to come to strange conclusions - it's just blunt data. Therefore, I hadn't bothered to look at what studies were used, who wrote the conclusions, and so forth.
So, which part was what threw you off? Sometimes it's more fun reading wrong information.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Milton Diamond, dishonesty ?
This is something I had not heard of? Can you relate the events that made people think he was dishonest? He used to be at University of Hawaii, didn't he? There is another Doctor that used to be at Umich, but I can not remember his name. Those two and a couple others in Norway, I think, were the pioneers in Gid study. There were people who were also involved in linking DES to GID, and I was involved in that group for a number of years. But, in the end, I felt like they were trying to justify things based on wishful thinking.
I don't know if they will ever come up with a solid reason for it. I think GID is entirely psychological but that does not make it any less real.
Gwen
Dishonesty
Not Diamond's; he exposed it. It is a story I have often mentioned, the David Reimer/John Money tragedy. The dishonesty was that even though the academics involved knew the truth, they still kept repeating what they wished had happened as if it actually had.
Don't feel too bad.
Don't feel too bad. Textbooks still keep insisting that Marconi invented radio. This despite the court cases and evidence over ninety years ago that proved that Nikolai Tesla invented radio - and Marconi stole it.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Marconi
...and like Edison 'invented' the light bulb, and not Swan. No, my point is that it was an interesting article, especially about the exposure to hormones in gestation/early life. I was just initially put off by the very early references to John Money. Gwen's reference to wishful thinking tied in well, there; Money's fraudulent insistence on his experiment's 'success' being flatly contradicted by Diamond's exposure of the facts.
A longer reply...like many here, I realised my problem as soon as I realised there was a difference. Money's take is that I 'learned' my GID. Learned it, no doubt, from my soldier father, and my siblings (both male, one later a soldier). Now, I don't know why I am the way I am. My genetics and 'natural' physique (big, strong, hairy) do not suggest massive doses of oestrogen, nor any of the other oddities such as DSD or AID. I just KNOW, and always have done.
Even more fascinating...
...how some female rats would actually take young male rats and force them to wear pink fur if they misbehaved. And how some male rats would immediately be attracted to other male rats if they wore pink fur. And then there's the odd older male rat automatically calling his son princess if he found him wearing pink fur. Then there's the sad stories of male rats who suffer significant trauma and find comfort going to Macy's to shop for new pink fur. I heard that a gopher told the male rats that he accepted them as female rats even if it was because they only wore pink fur. I could go on, but I think it's time to take my meds!
Dio vi benedica tutti
Con grande amore e di affetto
Andrea Lena
Love, Andrea Lena
It sounds like you've been
It sounds like you've been mixing them a bit already!
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Drea
I hate pink fur!
A nice paisley-print tail, though....