Regarding Trump’s Executive Order, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”
This title combines two different topics, and the second in this case, regarding “Biological Truth”, is based on incorrect information and assumptions.
The Reality of Trying to Define “Biological Sex”
Sexual development in the fetus occurs on a continuum. It is not like a coin-flip or the on-off of a light switch. It’s like a dimmer switch that starts as female and gets pushed toward male based on the degree of exposure to male hormones. This was known and published by the 1990s, if not earlier.
Men’s bodies create male hormones – androgens, including testosterone; women’s bodies create female hormones such as estrogen and progesterone. Additionally, men’s bodies produce a small amount of female hormones, and women’s bodies produce a small amount of male hormones. Our environment also includes chemicals that act as endocrine disruptors – PFAS and phthalates that are found in plastics are examples. These endocrine disruptors can mimic male or female hormones and influence how the body works, as well as its fetal development.
During fetal sexual development, the internal sex organs and the external genitalia develop during the first half of gestation, but not simultaneously. Brain structures that differentiate male versus female develop during the second half of gestation, but independently and not simultaneously.
What drives this sexual differentiation is not the fetus having two X chromosomes or an X chromosome and a Y chromosome. (Sex chromosomes aren’t even limited to those two options.) What drives the sexual differentiation directly is exposure to sex hormones or endocrine disruptors that mimic sex hormones. This allows for variations in hormones present to vary the degree of female versus male fetal development. Variation can occur within a particular organ or structure, and it can vary from one structure to another.
Conditions within the fetus itself, drugs administered to the mother, maternal stress, environmental endocrine disruptors and other factors can vary the amount of androgens to which the fetus is exposed, which in turn varies the degree of male development in whatever male-female differentiating tissues are created at that specific time. This can result in a fetus developing with genitalia appearing male, female, ambiguous, or some of each. The same is true, but less obvious, for internal sex organs and sexually differentiating brain structures.
The result is that the external genitalia, internal sex organs, and sexually differentiating brain structures can be congruent or incongruent with one another as far as male vs female development. Any of these can be definitively male or female, ambiguous, or bits of both — anywhere on the development continuum. This, in itself, means that defining “sex” is complex rather than a simple binary selection.
To further complicate matters, humans have been found to have as many as five sex chromosomes in various combinations of Xs and Ys: XXY, XYY, XXYY, and so on, even simply a single X, designated XO. Presence of a Y chromosome, in the world of neuroscience, designates an individual as a genetic male; absence of a Y chromosome is designated as a genetic female.
Yet, as we’ve just seen, genetics and anatomy can be incongruent, each representing a different sex than the other, representing both, or being ambiguous.
The “magic bullet” on the Y chromosome that kickstarts male development is the SRY gene. At about six weeks into embryonic development, the SRY gene begins and then works in concert with the SOX9 and other genes to initiate embryonic production of androgens and development of male characteristics. If the presence of male hormone is persistent and consistent throughout development, the fetus will appear consistently male.
It is possible, during production of sperm in a future father, for an SRY gene to translocate from a Y chromosome to an X chromosome. If a sperm containing the Y chromosome having no SRY gene fertilizes an egg, the resulting genetically XY male fetus may develop to all appearances as female. If a sperm with the X chromosome that gained an SRY gene fertilizes an egg, the genetically XX female fetus can develop to all appearances as a male.
These are the complexities that should be taken into account when considering how to define an individual’s sex. It is not a simple either-or. It’s not like the result of flipping a coin, or a switch being on or off. It is truly complex.
The Next Step in Defining Sex – Gender Dysphoria (transgender, or trans)
In the developing brain, certain areas (hypothalamus, hippocampus, and others) differentiate male versus female, with characteristics based on size, number of neurons, and/or density of neurons. Neuroscientists have thus far determined three brain structures associated with gender identity:
- central nucleus of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BSTc)
- interstitial nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus, subdivision 3 (INAH-3)
- infundibulum nucleus
Recall that sexual anatomy develops during the first half of fetal development, and the male-female differentiating brain structures develop during the second half. Following the scenarios laid out above, with potentially varying amounts of androgens, the brain structures that contribute to one’s gender identity may or may not be consistent with genitalia and/or internal sex organs. When inconsistent, that can result in gender dysphoria – feeling like the right sex in the wrong body. Depending on how the determinative structures developed, the feeling of dysphoria could be vague, strong, or less strong; remember, development occurs on a continuum. Gender dysphoria can arise as a toddler, develop later in childhood, or occur at puberty.
Administering hormones after birth does not change the structure and function of these brain structures. To bring one’s anatomy and gender identity into alignment, therefore, some individuals opt for anatomical transition with accompanying hormone treatments. That difficult and life-altering choice must be left to the individual and their physician.
The Issue of Defending Women
I won’t participate in the bathrooms and sports arguments. You could draw a line between pre-surgery and post-op, but my suggestion is to do what my previous employer did when one of the employees went through the transition: they changed one of the smaller restrooms to a one-person restroom with a lockable door.
This solution is similar to what had been done years ago to provide public male/female baby-changing restrooms having a toilet, sink, and changing table inside, and a locking door with symbols representing both male and female on the outside. That way, a mother, father, or whoever was caring for the infant had a restroom to use as well as a quiet space to change a baby’s diapers.
The same thing could be done with sports. Rather than have two sides arguing, yea or nay, whether or not to allow trans women into women’s sports, create a third “intersex/trans” sports league with trans locker rooms. After all, the number of intersex individuals is estimated at two percent of the world population – the same as the number of people having naturally red hair. In a recent poll of US high school students, three percent identified as transgender. (Is increasing exposure to PFAS chemicals throughout the environment and public water supplies in recent decades having an effect?)