In this culture, and in most of the civilised word today, research data is used Author interview with Kit Rachlin, Washington, D.C., February 16, 2002.
As more young transsexuals push to begin transitioning at a younger age Maria Russo, “Teen Transsexuals: When Do Children Have a Right to Decide
Their Gender?” Salon, August 28, 1999- Dowloaded from http://www.salon.com/health/sex/urge/1999/08/28/transexualteens, April 9,2001.
Seven FEAR OF A PINK PLANET
Developments in the last decade Christine Johnson, “Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals and Transsexualism,” unpublished paper, available online at http://www.TransAdvocate.org.
Yes, there seems to be a great deal of discomfort in the media Author’s personal communication, Christine Johnson, November 13, 2001.
a workshop on endocrine disrupters in February 2002 Test Smart Endocrine Disrupters Workshop, Fairfax, Va., February 25-26, 2002.
DES was first synthesized… in the laboratory of Sir Charles Dodds E. C. Dodds and W. Lawson, “Oestrogenic Activity of Certain Synthetic Compounds, Nature 141 (1938): 247-49.
Seven published papers subsequently reported Roberta J. Apfel, M.D., and Susan M. Fisher, M.D., To Do No Harm: DES and the Dilemmas of Modern Medicine (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), 23.
A larger, controlled study W. J. Dieckmann, M. E. Davies, L. M. Ryn-kiewicz, et al., “Does the Administration of Diethylstilbestrol During Pregnancy Have Any Therapeutic Value?” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 181, no. 6 (December 1999): 1572—3.
DES became a routine part of the quality care that practitioners gave their middle-class patients Apfel and Fisher, To Do No Harm, 25.
Methyl groups are entirely derived Sandra Blakeslee, New York Times, October 6, 2003.
DES also feminizes these patients Apfel and Fisher, To Do No Harm, 41.
A fact sheet on DES The reference to transsexual changes was removed from the online version of the NTP fact sheet in 2003. However, the reference to “transsexual changes particularly in utero” remains in the dictionary. Diethylstilbesterol entry, in J. Buckingham and F. Macdonald, eds., Dictionary of Organic Compouds, 6th ed. (New York: Chapman and Hall, 1996).
the fetus probably becomes sensitised to all estrogens by DES exposure Apfel and Fisher, To Do No Harm, 46.
If the timed sequence of hormone signals is disrupted Berkson, Hormone Deception, 89.
The term default sex has such a passive ring to it Natalie Angier, Woman: An Intimate Geography (New York: Anchor Books, 1999), 43.
began during weeks 5 and 6 of fetal life Apfel and Fisher, To Do No Harm, 47.
probably underestimates the number of in utero exposures Berkson, Hormone Deception, 64.
In April 1971, a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine A. L. Herbst, H. Ulfelder, D. C. Poskanzer, “Adenocarcinoma of the Vagina: Association of Maternal Stilbestrol Therapy with Tumor Appearance in Young Women,” New England Journal of Medicine 284, no. 15 (April 15, 1971): 878-81.
This despite the existence of a 1939 editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association Anonymous, “Estrogen Therapy: A faming,” JAMA 113, no. 26 (1939): 234.
lobbied for research funding to study its effects Not until 1992 did the National Institutes of Health convene a meeting on the long-term effects of DES. Shortly afterward, Congress passed the DES Education and Research Amendment, which provides funding for research and for a public and physician education campaign.
DES was one of the prime movers behind the nascent women’s health movement Author interview with Dana Beyer, September 2002.
For a very long time, we’ve been battling with the forces Author’s personal communication, Scott Kerlin, September 7, 2002.
says social scientist Scott Kerlin Kerlin is currently a counselor in private practice in Kingston, Ontario. From 1998 to 2000 he was a lecturing professor in social sciences and human development at Washington State University.
I’ve gotten advance looks at the CDCmatenaL Author’s personal communication, Scott Kerlin, September 12, 2002.
DES exposure causes imbalances in fetal hormone levels and impairment of normal functioning in hormone receptors See Robert Bigsby, Robert E. Chapin, George P. Dayston, et al., “Evaluating the Effects of Endocrine Disrupters on Endocrine Function during Development,” Environmental Health Perspectives 107, supp. 4 (August 1999): 613-18. See also John Travis, “Modus Operandi of an Infamous Drug: Mutant Mice Provide Clues to How DES Wreaked Havoc in the Womb,” Science News, February 20, 1999, retrieved from http://wwwsciencenews.org_sn_arc99/ 2_99/bob2.htm, April 12, 2003.
Hypospadias … and urethralmeatalstenosis … have also been noted in DES sons N. M. Kaplan, “Male Pseudohermaphroditism,” New England Journal of Medicine 261 (1959): 641-44; D. Hoefnagel, “Prenatal Diethylstilbestrol Exposure and Male Hypogonadism,” The Lancet 7951 (January 17, 1976):
152-53-
For a recent study on increased risk of hypospadia in DES grandsons (sons of DES daughters), see H. Klip, J. Verloop, J. D. van Cool, M. E. Koster, C. W. Burger, and F. E. van Leeuwen, “Hypospadias in Sons of Women Exposed to Diethylstilbestrol in Utero: A Cohort Study.” The Lancet 359 (2002): 1102-7. See also H. Klop, J. Verloop, J. D. van Gool, M. E. Koster, C. W. Burger, and F. E. Leeuwen, “Increased Risk of Hypospadias in Male Offspring of Women Exposed to Diethylstilbestrol in Utero.” Paediamc and Pennatal Epidemiology 15, no. 4 (2001): A19. 254 The DES Sons Online Network was also formed to expand awareness Scott Kerlin and Dana Beyer, M.D, unpublished paper, Scott Kerlin personal communication with the author.
About 50 percent of our two hundred people … exhibit some form of gender variance Dana Beyer responding to questions after a presentation at the International Foundation for Gender Education conference, March 22, 2003, Philadelphia, Pa.
In July 2004 “The vast majority of individuals whom I have allowed to join the [DES Sons] network had either ‘confirmed’ (i.e., directly through medical records access or indirectly through personal conversation with mother or other family members) or ‘strongly suspected’ (i.e., all evidence points in that direction, but medical records access and/or contact with mother not possible) prenatal DES exposure. However, a few (less than fifty since the network was formed) who had no way of confirming their exposure were also permitted to join in order to assist them with unanswered questions. (It is estimated that 50 percent of all DES-exposed XY males have never been told of their exposure.)” Scott Kerlin, personal communication with the author, July 9, 2004.
It seems that the entire focus of any ongoing “cohort” tracking Author’s personal communication, Scott Kerlin, September 12, 2001.
the goal of the DCCS is to determine whether the health risk of cancer Centers for Disease Control, http://www.cdc.gov/DES.
not only increased incidence of hypospadias but also “lower ratings” I. D. Yalom, R. Green, and N. Fish, “Prenatal Exposure to Female Hormones,” Archives ofGeneral Psychiatry 28 (April 1973): 554—61.
A study published in 1992 by researchers at the Kinsey Institute J. M. Reinisch and S. A. Sanders, “Effects of Prenatal Exposure to Diethylstilbestrol (DES) on Hemispheric Laterality and Spatial Ability in Human Males,” Hormones and Behavior 26, no. 1 (1992): 52—75.
this subject, as I don’t need to tell you Personal communication, Pat Cody to Scott Kerlin, June 8, 2001.
Since we cannot create fresh studies of DES in humans Author’s personal communication, Scott Kerlin, September 10, 2002.
In 2001, the researcher Niels Skakkebaek and colleagues N. E. Skakkebaek, E. Rajpert-De Meyts, and K. M. Main, “Testicular Dysgenesis Syndrome: An Increasingly Common Developmental Disorder with Environmental Aspects,” Human Reproduction 5 (July 2001): 972—78.
the biological plausibility of possible damage to certain human functions (particularly reproductive and developing systems) World Health Organization, “Global Assessment of the State of the Science of Endocrine Disrupters,” retrieved from http://www.who.int
/pcs/emerg_site/edc/global_edc _TOC.htm, July 31, 2002.
It is somewhat ironic that two synthetic chemicals John McLachlan, “Environmental Signaling and Endocrine Disruption,” Endocrine Reviews 22, no. 3 (2001): 323.
Reviewers considered the work metaphysical Sheldon Krimsky, Hormonal Chaos: The Social and Scientific Origins of the Environmental Endocrine Hypothesis (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000), 13.
The higher the dose, the greater is the expected effect Krimsky, Hormonal Chaos, 13.
The authors of a 2000 paper “It is also the case that the environmental endocrine hypothesis resides at the boundary of endocrinology and toxicology, challenging the common wisdom of both fields. For example, Crews et al. outlined some of the salient points that distinguish environmental endocrine disruption from other toxicological approaches. They contrast the ‘traditional toxicological approach,’ which utilizes a carcinogenic model or acute toxicity, with the ‘endocrine disrupter approach,’ which relies on a developmental model and delayed dysfunction.” McLachlan, “Environmental Signaling,” 320, referencing D. Crews, E. Willingham, and J. K. Sipper, “Endocrine Disrupters: Present Issues, Future Directions,” Quarterly Review of Biology jj (2000): 243—60.
In 1990 … Theo Colborn published the results of an extensive literature search T. Colborn, A. Davidson, S. N. Green, et al., Great Lakes, Great Legacyr (Washington, D.C.: Conservation Foundation, 1992).
studies on what he called “the positioning effect” F. vom Saal and F. Bron-son, “Sexual Characteristics of Adult Female Mice Are Correlated with Their Blood testosterone Levels during Prenatal Development,” Science 208 (1980): 597-99; F S. vom Saal, W. Grant, C. McMullen, and K. Laves, “High Fetal Estrogen Concentrations: Correlation with Enhanced Adult Sexual Preferences and Decreased Aggression in Male Mice,” Science 220 (1983): 1306-9.
Colborn, vomSaal, and other researchers begansharing data T. Colborn, F. S. vom Saal, and A. M. Soto, “Developmental Effects of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in Wildlife and Humans, Environmental Health Perspectives ioi (1993): 378-83.
Together, the two wrote a paper, published in the British medical journal The Lancet R. M. Sharpe and N. E. Skakkebaek, “Are Oestrogens Involved in Falling Sperm Counts and Disorders of the Male Reproductive Tract?” The Lancet 431 (1993): 1392—95.
Additional research funds to study different components Krimsky, Hormonal Chaos, 57.
Is it a coincidence that since the introduction of chlorinated pesticides Johnson, “Endocrine Disrupters.”
Clearly researchers knew that sexual developmental changes were observed with DDT…as early as igSo H. A. Burlington, V. F. Lindeman, “Effect of DDT on Testes and Secondary Sex Characteristics of White Leghorn Cockerels,” Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine 74, no. 48051 (1950): 48-51. See also R. M. Welch, W. Leven, and A. H. Conney, “Estrogenic Action of DDT and Its Analogs,” Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology 14 (1969): 358—67.
When I saw the words “endocrine disrupter” a lightbulb went off in my head Author interview with Christine Johnson, Philadelphia, Pa., May 13,2002.
he acknowledged that 45 percent of his patients had hypogonadism Benjamin., Transsexual Phenomenon, 53, 75. Actually, Benjamin estimated that 40 percent of his patients showed signs of hypogonadism. In the chapter titled “The Etiology of Transsexualism,” he states: “A possible endocrine cause of transsexualism has been investigated in a few cases with great thoroughness. Beyond a few suspicious findings, no definite proof has yet been found. It may or may not have an endocrine significance that among my 152 male transsexuals, nearly 40 percent were found to have more or less distinct signs of a degree of sexual underdevelopment (hypogonadism). … In such a condition, the pituitary as well as the gonads may be at fault with, of course, an inborn reason behind it.” Benjamin’s shrewd guesses are not too far off the mark, judging from recent discoveries about the effects of EDCs.
Scott Kerlin recently uncovered a provocative lead Personal communication with the author, July 29, 2004. References H. Benjamin, “Should Surgery Be Performed on Transsexuals?” American Journal of Psychotherapy 25, no. 1 (January 1, 1971): 74-82. Also, H. Benjamin and C. L. Ihlenfeld, “Transsexualism,” American Journal of Nursing 73, no. 3 (March 1, 1973): 457-61.
They can recount exactly where they were and what they were doing See, for example, Morris, Conundrum, 15. “I was three or perhaps four years old when I realized that I had been born into the wrong body, and should really be a girl. I remember the moment well, and it is the earliest memory of my life. I was sitting beneath my mother’s piano, and her music was falling around me like cataracts, enclosing me as if in a cave…. What triggered so bizarre a thought I have long forgotten, but the conviction was unfaltering from the start.”
My former career was in the insurance industry NTAC listserv (ntacmem [email protected]) Tuesday, March 19, 2002.
Wonderful! For years I lived just 1A mile from a lot of those settling ponds Ibid.
These include fish, frogs, and alligators Author interview with Maverick. See also: D. M. Fry and C. K. Toone, “DDT-Induced Feminization of Gull Embryos, Science 213 (1981): 922-24; L. J. Guillette, T. S. Gross, G. R. Masson, et al., “Developmental Abnormalities of the Gonad and Abnormal Sex Hormone Concentrations in Juvenile Alligators from Contaminated and Control Lakes in Florida,” Environmental Health Perspectives 102 (1994): 680-88; T. Hayes, K. Haston, M. Tsui, A. Hoang, C. Haeffle, and A. Vonk, “Atrazine-Induced Hermaphroditism at 0.1 ppb in American Leopard Frogs (Rana pipiens): Laboratory and Field Evidence,” Environmental Health Perspectives in, no. 4 (April 2003): 568—75.
the concept is ahead of the science Author conversation with James Yager, Ph.D., Baltimore, Md., May 31, 2002.
estrogens are considered reversible cellular signals McLachlan, “Environmental Signaling,” 333.
when a gene programmed to respond to estradiol at puberty is misprogrammed Ibid., 335.
McLachlan points to one interesting example McLachlan, referencing J. R. Tanner, “St. Anthony’s Fire, Then and Now: A Case Report and Historical Review,” Canadian Journal of Surgery 30 (1987): 291—93.
individuals exhibiting the bizarre symptoms of St. Anthony’s fire J. McLachlan, “Environmental Signaling,” 335.
More people are coming around Author interview with Milton Diamond, Philadelphia Pa., March 21, 2003; Milton Diamond, “Pediatric Management of Ambiguous and Tramatized Genitalia.” Journal of Urology 162 (1999): 1021-28.
what is gender-specific behavior H. F. Meyer-Bahlburg, J. F. Feldman, P. Cohen, and A. A. Erhardt, “Perinatal Factors in the Development of Gender-Related Play Behavior: Sex Hormones versus Pregnancy Complications,” Psychiatry 51, no. 3 (1988): 260-71. See also Hestien Vreugdenhil, Froukje M. E. Slijper, Paul G. H. Mulder, and Nynke Weisglas-Kuperus, “Effects of Perinatal Exposure to PCBs and Dioxins on Play Behavior in Dutch Children at School Age,” Environmental Health Perspectives no, no. 10 (October 2002): 593-98; D. E. Sandberg, J. E. Venn, J. Weiner, G. P. Beehler, M. Swanson, and H. F. Meyer-Bahlburg, “Hormonally Active Agents in the Environment and Children’s Behavior: Assessing Effects on Children’s Gender Dimorphic Behavior Outcomes,” Epidemiology 14, no. 2 (March 2003): 148-55.
the subject of essential sex differences in the mind is clearly very delicate Baron-Cohen, Essential Difference, 1.
Systematizing and empathising are wholly … different processes Ibid., 3.
Diagnoses of autism, like those for gender identity disorder, have been rising steadily over the past few decades “The U.S. Department of Education reports a 900 percent increase in cases of autism since 1992. On C-Span exhausted, terrified, furious parents vent their hopeless wrath during congressional hearings investigating claims that Big Pharma has ignored for years their belief that pediatric vaccinations precipitated their child’s acquisition of autism. Is the mercury-based preservative contained in the vaccine—thimerosal—overwhelming the baby’s premature immune system? … S
ensing the inevitable, bills exonerating vaccine manufacturers from liability snake their way through Congress. The most notorious of which, a rider, Mickey Finn’d at the nth hour into the density of the Homeland Security Bill under cover of smallpox, attempted to exempt Eli Lilly from any and all damages related to vaccine complaints. The provision’s author? Senate Majority Leader Dr. Bill Frist, R-Tenn. Uncovered by public watchdogs, it has since been removed from the bill.” Scot Sea, “Planet Autism,” Salon, September 27, 2003. Available online at http:// www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2003/07/27/autism/index.html.
Two interesting (though unrelated) facts are buried in this excerpt— mercury is a known endocrine disrupter, and the Eli Lilly Company was also one of the primary manufacturers of DES. 277 The navy discharged me in ‘j4 See “A Life of Service: Sister Mary, Whose Past Has Seen Many Painful Twists and Turns, Now Brings Comfort to Others with the World’s Most Comprehensive Web Site on AIDS and HIV,” Jean O. Pasco, Los Angeles Times (Home Edition), December 1,1997; “Sharing the Word on AIDS Technology: Patients and Others Can Count on Sister Mary Elizabeth’s Electronic Bulletin Board in San Juan Capis-trano to Provide Extensive Information for Free,” Leslie Berkman, Los Angeles Times (Orange County Edition), April 18, 1994; “There Is Still a Prayer for New Religious Order,” Lynn Smith, Los Angeles Times (Orange County Edition), November 14, 1988; “Vows Repudiated: Bishop Blocks Transsexual Nun’s Order,” Lynn Smith, Los Angeles Times (Orange County Edition), January 8,1988.
The Riddle of Gender Page 42