The transsexual brain--A review of findings on the neural basis of transsexualism

Elke Stefanie Smith; Jessica Junger; Birgit Derntl; Ute Habel

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.09.008

The transsexual brain--A review of findings on the neural basis of transsexualism

Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2015 Dec:59:251-66. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.09.008. Epub 2015 Sep 30.

Authors

Elke Stefanie Smith¹, Jessica Junger², Birgit Derntl³, Ute Habel²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Medical School, RWTH Aachen University, Germany. Electronic address: esmith@ukaachen.de.
² Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Medical School, RWTH Aachen University, Germany; JARA-Translational Brain Medicine, Jülich, Germany.
³ Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Medical School, RWTH Aachen University, Germany; JARA-Translational Brain Medicine, Jülich, Germany; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.

PMID: 26429593
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.09.008

Abstract

Transsexualism describes the condition when a person's psychological gender differs from his or her biological sex and is commonly thought to arise from a discrepant cerebral and genital sexual differentiation. This review intends to give an extensive overview of structural and functional neurobiological correlates of transsexualism and their course under cross-sex hormonal treatment. Research in this field enables insight into the stability or variability of gender differences and their relation to hormonal status. For a number of sexually dimorphic brain structures or processes, signs of feminisation or masculinisation are observable in transsexual individuals, which, during hormonal treatment, partly seem to further adjust to characteristics of the desired sex. Still, it appears the data are quite inhomogeneous, mostly not replicated and in many cases available for male-to-female transsexuals only. As the prevalence of homosexuality is markedly higher among transsexuals than among the general population, disentangling correlates of sexual orientation and gender identity is a major problem. To resolve such deficiencies, the implementation of specific research standards is proposed.

Keywords: Brain; Gender dysphoria; Gender identity disorder; MRI; Transsexualism.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Brain / physiopathology*
Gender Identity*
Homosexuality / psychology*
Humans
Sex Characteristics*
Sexual Behavior / psychology*
Transsexualism / drug therapy
Transsexualism / psychology*