Gender Dysphoria and Children: An Endocrinologist's Evaluation of the book ''I am Jazz''

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[–]msteacherlady 14 insightful - 1 fun14 insightful - 0 fun15 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

When I'm teaching AP-level Biology, we do cover cell communication and signal transduction pathways. Our case study is commonly an impala encountering a cheetah, and the resulting epinephrine dump and how cells process a response. I know I already commented in this thread but I've been reading this article piecemeal and this struck me:

In an episode where Jazz visits a surgeon and has a discussion about sexual function, Jazz states: “I haven’t experienced any sexual sensation.” Regarding orgasm, Jazz says: “I don’t know, I haven’t experienced it.” The male genitalia are awaiting testosterone to change from a pre-pubescent state to an adult state in which sexual function is possible. In the normal adult state, there is full sexual function. In one episode, Jazz’s pediatric endocrinologist states that Jazz has adult female levels of estrogen. This, however, has not given Jazz “any sexual sensation.” This makes sense physiologically, as the male genitalia (penis, scrotum, testicles, etc.) are awaiting testosterone to develop, not estrogen.

When I teach my students the most basic thing about cell communication, one thing they learn is that without a receptor, there cannot be a response. This allows your whole body to be awash in a hormone or some other molecular cue, but only certain cells will respond. On top of that, different cells will have different pathways that lead to different responses.

So you dump a female cocktail of hormones on some dude, because he already has breast tissue, there will be some response to hormones. But if the target tissue isn't there, say the uterus, the receptors aren't there either, so what do these people think they're accomplishing? The hormones don't build structures. HRS for people unhappy with the sex they were born with is such obvious horseshit pseudoscience, so of course people are buying into it. Everyone wants a simple magical pill and no one wants to really understand how complex the body really is.

[–]tuesday 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

wow i already knew that about cell communication. and yet, i never applied it to trans. fascinating, thanks!!

[–]msteacherlady 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I honestly didn't even think about the connection until I saw a TRA bring it up as evidence of the gender spectrum, funnily enough. Just another layer of complexity to give the illusion of "there's a million genders!" You could have receptors that don't match your chromosomes! (Okay, cool bro, but you had enough for a matching set of balls.) This whole confusing natural variation and anomaly with spectrum-ness drives me crazy too. I blame the vidya-games that have character creation. The sliders have mushed the kids' brains.

[–]msteacherlady 10 insightful - 5 fun10 insightful - 4 fun11 insightful - 5 fun -  (2 children)

Linked in that article is this: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/sep/3/kindergarten-transgender-lessons-have-parents-chan/

Parents may think private and charter is safe. Not so. As a public school teacher I have an ask for parents out there. Rather than quietly pulling your children out of school, please raise your voices. Go to board meetings. Get this curriculum placed on their agendas. Right now, as a science teacher, trans curriculum doesn't belong in any of my state-mandated standards, and I'd like to keep it that way. Unfortunately it seems to be only conservative groups who are raising the alarm, and they already dismissed in some areas for their history of unreasonable stances on teaching evolution and plate tectonics.

[–]vitunrotta 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

plate tectonics.

Not surprised it's just the religious nutters who go against this TRA bs (I grew up in a goddamn sect so I get to use that derogatory word of them, hah!) but PLATE TECTONICS is also something they wanted to not teach their kids?! What the what? I burst out laughing when I read that at first but holy jeebers on a tricycle, it makes them sound way nuttier than I ever imagined...

And THESE people are our "allies" in this fight. I need about 25 more hands to do the proper face palm that is required for this.

[–]msteacherlady 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I tell ya, I've seen everything. Even another teacher teach alternatives to plate tectonics! However, I NEVER saw this gender thing coming. Not in 4 Billion years.

[–]fuckingsealions 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

The author discusses Jazz's lack of sexual functioning and sensation. I know that relationships and romance extend well beyond sensations in your genitals, but it made me wonder. I can't imagine what it's like to have not gone through puberty but to be in the world as an adult.

[–]MarkTwainiac 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

But it's not just Jazz's genital functioning & sensation that have been destroyed. Jazz has no libido, no intrinsic sexual feelings or attraction because Jazz's brain didn't go through puberty. I know men who lost their genitals due to war injuries as well as men who've had their genital functioning wane & disappear later in life due to diseases of aging - but all of these guys know what it's like to have sexual desire - & they also know the sex of the persons they desire. Jazz knows none of this.

[–]yishengqingwa666 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

This poor boy.

[–]MarkTwainiac 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

And it only gets worse. Last year, Jazz deferred going off to college for a year due to his ongoing mental health issues, & coz his parents - especially his mom - seem dead set on undermining any/all of Jazz's attempts (lame though they tend to be) to separate from them & try to acquire a modicum of independence & self-sufficiency. But when Jazz made that decision a year ago, no one had any idea that a pandemic was looming on the horizon. Since Harvard is doing all its undergrad courses virtually in the coming academic year, & no first year/frosh class students will be amongst the tiny minority of the total student body who might be allowed to be on campus (due to difficulties learning online at home), it looks like Jazz will be stuck at home with his parents for another year. As Jazz's TV show made clear, since quitting regular HS prior to 10th grade, Jazz seems to have spent most of his HS years in his bedroom in his parental home staring at a laptop or tablet screen & binge-eating - & it looks like that's how life will remain for the foreseeable future.

Jazz's most recent post on Instagram is a pic of him arm & arm with his father in which Jazz is wearing a hat that says, bizarrely & worryingly IMO, "Love Is A Human Right."

I'm not on Insta, so could not scroll through all Jazz's recent posts, but from what I saw just now & have seen in the past, most pics are of Jazz by self or with family members, not with friends & peers. This is very unusual & frankly weird for someone of Jazz's age, lockdowns or not, cuz adolescence & early adulthood are times in life when its normal & healthy for youth in the West to focus mainly on their friends, romantic interests & social peer groups rather than so heavily or exclusively on their family of origin.

But then, Jazz has always seemed to have very few friends. Since Jazz was raised by his mom & the rest of his family to be a self-absorbed narcissist who always has to be center of attention, has been taught that the best way to relate to others is to lecture them constantly about which views they're allowed to have, & the poor kid's puberty & thus cognitive development were blocked by drugs, this is sadly not a surprise. Poor boy is now a poor young man.

[–]fireweed 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I don't think Jazz is even doing online college at this point. The poor kid's life has been ruined by his narc mom and enabler dad. Jazz started losing friends once the other kids began puberty and he didn't. The girls especially naturally pulled away from him because he could not relate to them at all once they began puberty. The boys did not want to look "gay" by being friends with him, and of course they also were in a totally different mindspace because they were experiencing puberty.

That Jazz will forever live at home under the control of his mother is no surprise to me. He can't function in the adult world because he never developed an adult brain on top of being under his mother's thumb. Jazz is going to have a really sad life. My only hope is that one day he will come out and tell the world that he was horribly abused and that "trans" is a bunch of nonsense.

[–]Cass 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Is the purpose of this to encourage people to come out, or what? because it sounds like hell.