The Plasticity of Sex

The Plasticity of Sex PDF Author: Marianne J. Legato
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0128159693
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
The Plasticity of Sex: The Molecular Biology and Clinical Features of Genomic Sex, Gender Identity and Sexual Behavior provides a comprehensive view on the development of human sexuality. As there has been a crescendo of interest over the past several decades about the nature and diversity of human sexuality, this reference brings the evidence-based research into one place. The emergence of issues surrounding gender identity, genital ambivalence and the transition from one sex to another is striking, with the public and treating physicians alike clamoring for an evidence-based, comprehensive treatment of human sexuality and all its variations. This is a must-have reference for biomedical researchers in endocrinology, neuroscience, development biology, medical students, residents, and practicing physicians from all medical areas. Winner of the 2021 PROSE Award in Biomedicine from the Association of American Publishers! Discusses the role of biology in gender identity from research in genetics, endocrinology and neuroscience Addresses important health disparities and how to address them when treating the transgender patient Reviews evidence-based information on the biological basis and impact of environmental and hormonal factors at different life stages Outlines schema for treating variations in the sexuality and sexual function of the individual patient

The Plasticity of Sex

The Plasticity of Sex PDF Author: Marianne J. Legato
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0128159693
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 318

Get Book

Book Description
The Plasticity of Sex: The Molecular Biology and Clinical Features of Genomic Sex, Gender Identity and Sexual Behavior provides a comprehensive view on the development of human sexuality. As there has been a crescendo of interest over the past several decades about the nature and diversity of human sexuality, this reference brings the evidence-based research into one place. The emergence of issues surrounding gender identity, genital ambivalence and the transition from one sex to another is striking, with the public and treating physicians alike clamoring for an evidence-based, comprehensive treatment of human sexuality and all its variations. This is a must-have reference for biomedical researchers in endocrinology, neuroscience, development biology, medical students, residents, and practicing physicians from all medical areas. Winner of the 2021 PROSE Award in Biomedicine from the Association of American Publishers! Discusses the role of biology in gender identity from research in genetics, endocrinology and neuroscience Addresses important health disparities and how to address them when treating the transgender patient Reviews evidence-based information on the biological basis and impact of environmental and hormonal factors at different life stages Outlines schema for treating variations in the sexuality and sexual function of the individual patient

Histories of the Transgender Child

Histories of the Transgender Child PDF Author: Jules Gill-Peterson
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 1452958157
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
A groundbreaking twentieth-century history of transgender children With transgender rights front and center in American politics, media, and culture, the pervasive myth still exists that today’s transgender children are a brand new generation—pioneers in a field of new obstacles and hurdles. Histories of the Transgender Child shatters this myth, uncovering a previously unknown twentieth-century history when transgender children not only existed but preexisted the term transgender and its predecessors, playing a central role in the medicalization of trans people, and all sex and gender. Beginning with the early 1900s when children with “ambiguous” sex first sought medical attention, to the 1930s when transgender people began to seek out doctors involved in altering children’s sex, to the invention of the category gender, and finally the 1960s and ’70s when, as the field institutionalized, transgender children began to take hormones, change their names, and even access gender confirmation, Julian Gill-Peterson reconstructs the medicalization and racialization of children’s bodies. Throughout, they foreground the racial history of medicine that excludes black and trans of color children through the concept of gender’s plasticity, placing race at the center of their analysis and at the center of transgender studies. Until now, little has been known about early transgender history and life and its relevance to children. Using a wealth of archival research from hospitals and clinics, including incredible personal letters from children to doctors, as well as scientific and medical literature, this book reaches back to the first half of the twentieth century—a time when the category transgender was not available but surely existed, in the lives of children and parents.

Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health

Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 9780309132978
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
It's obvious why only men develop prostate cancer and why only women get ovarian cancer. But it is not obvious why women are more likely to recover language ability after a stroke than men or why women are more apt to develop autoimmune diseases such as lupus. Sex differences in health throughout the lifespan have been documented. Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health begins to snap the pieces of the puzzle into place so that this knowledge can be used to improve health for both sexes. From behavior and cognition to metabolism and response to chemicals and infectious organisms, this book explores the health impact of sex (being male or female, according to reproductive organs and chromosomes) and gender (one's sense of self as male or female in society). Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health discusses basic biochemical differences in the cells of males and females and health variability between the sexes from conception throughout life. The book identifies key research needs and opportunities and addresses barriers to research. Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health will be important to health policy makers, basic, applied, and clinical researchers, educators, providers, and journalists-while being very accessible to interested lay readers.

Sexing the Body

Sexing the Body PDF Author: Anne Fausto-Sterling
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 1541672909
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 621

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Book Description
Now updated with groundbreaking research, this award-winning classic examines the construction of sexual identity in biology, society, and history. Why do some people prefer heterosexual love while others fancy the same sex? Is sexual identity biologically determined or a product of convention? In this brilliant and provocative book, the acclaimed author of Myths of Gender argues that even the most fundamental knowledge about sex is shaped by the culture in which scientific knowledge is produced. Drawing on astonishing real-life cases and a probing analysis of centuries of scientific research, Fausto-Sterling demonstrates how scientists have historically politicized the body. In lively and impassioned prose, she breaks down three key dualisms -- sex/gender, nature/nurture, and real/constructed -- and asserts that individuals born as mixtures of male and female exist as one of five natural human variants and, as such, should not be forced to compromise their differences to fit a flawed societal definition of normality.

The Transformation of Intimacy

The Transformation of Intimacy PDF Author: Anthony Giddens
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745666507
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
The sexual revolution: an evocative term, but what meaning can be given to it today? How does 'sexuality' come into being and what connections does it have with the changes that have affected personal life on a more general plane? In answering these questions, Anthony Giddens disputes many of the dominant interpretations of the role of sexuality in modern culture. The emergence of what the author calls plastic sexuality - sexuality freed from its intrinsic relation to reproduction - is analysed in terms of the long-term development of the modern social order and social influences of the last few decades. Giddens argues that the transformation of intimacy, in which women have played the major part, holds out the possibility of a radical democratization of the personal sphere. This book will appeal to a large general audience as well as being essential reading for students and professionals.

Sex and the Developing Brain

Sex and the Developing Brain PDF Author: Margaret M. McCarthy
Publisher: Biota Publishing
ISBN: 1615047298
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
The brains of males and females, men and women, are different, that is a fact. What is debated is how different and how important are those differences. Sex differences in the brain are determined by genetics, hormones, and experience, which in humans includes culture, society, and parental and peer expectations. The importance of nonbiological variables to sex differences in humans is paramount, making it difficult if not impossible to parse out those contributions that are truly biological. The study of animals provides us the opportunity to understand the magnitude and scope of biologically based sex differences in the brain, and understanding the cellular mechanisms provides us insight into novel sources of brain plasticity. Many sex differences are established during a developmental sensitive window by differences in the hormonal milieu of males versus females. The neonatal testis produces large amounts of testosterone which gains access to the brain and is further metabolized into active androgens and estrogens which modify brain development. Major parameters that are influenced by hormones include neurogenesis, cell death, neurochemical phenotype, axonal and dendritic growth, and synaptogenesis. Variance in these parameters results in sex differences in the size of particular brain regions, the projections between brain regions, and the number and type of synapses within particular brain regions. The cellular mechanisms are both region and endpoint specific and invoke many surprising systems such as prostaglandins, endocannabinoids, and cell death proteins. Epigenetic modifications to the genome both establish and maintain sex differences in the brain and behavior. By understanding when, why, and how sex differences in the brain are established, we may also learn the source of strong gender biases in the relative risk and severity of numerous neurological diseases and disorders of mental health. Boys are much more likely to be diagnosed with autism spectrum or attention and hyperactivity disorders, as well as speech and language deficits, compared to girls. By contrast, women are more likely to suffer from affective disorders, such as depression, anxiety, compulsion, and eating disorders and more likely to experience autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders. Schizophrenia with an early onset is more common in males but a late-onset version is markedly more frequent in females. Male biased disorders have origins in development while female biased disorders are almost exclusively post-puberty. This remarkable shift in disease risk demands our attention. Novel insights into the biological origins of disease are also gained by comparing and contrasting the same processes in different sexes.

Developmental Plasticity and Evolution

Developmental Plasticity and Evolution PDF Author: Mary Jane West-Eberhard
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198028563
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 815

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Book Description
The first comprehensive synthesis on development and evolution: it applies to all aspects of development, at all levels of organization and in all organisms, taking advantage of modern findings on behavior, genetics, endocrinology, molecular biology, evolutionary theory and phylogenetics to show the connections between developmental mechanisms and evolutionary change. This book solves key problems that have impeded a definitive synthesis in the past. It uses new concepts and specific examples to show how to relate environmentally sensitive development to the genetic theory of adaptive evolution and to explain major patterns of change. In this book development includes not only embryology and the ontogeny of morphology, sometimes portrayed inadequately as governed by "regulatory genes," but also behavioral development and physiological adaptation, where plasticity is mediated by genetically complex mechanisms like hormones and learning. The book shows how the universal qualities of phenotypes--modular organization and plasticity--facilitate both integration and change. Here you will learn why it is wrong to describe organisms as genetically programmed; why environmental induction is likely to be more important in evolution than random mutation; and why it is crucial to consider both selection and developmental mechanism in explanations of adaptive evolution. This book satisfies the need for a truly general book on development, plasticity and evolution that applies to living organisms in all of their life stages and environments. Using an immense compendium of examples on many kinds of organisms, from viruses and bacteria to higher plants and animals, it shows how the phenotype is reorganized during evolution to produce novelties, and how alternative phenotypes occupy a pivotal role as a phase of evolution that fosters diversification and speeds change. The arguments of this book call for a new view of the major themes of evolutionary biology, as shown in chapters on gradualism, homology, environmental induction, speciation, radiation, macroevolution, punctuation, and the maintenance of sex. No other treatment of development and evolution since Darwin's offers such a comprehensive and critical discussion of the relevant issues. Developmental Plasticity and Evolution is designed for biologists interested in the development and evolution of behavior, life-history patterns, ecology, physiology, morphology and speciation. It will also appeal to evolutionary paleontologists, anthropologists, psychologists, and teachers of general biology.

Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference

Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference PDF Author: Cordelia Fine
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393340244
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Sex discrimination is supposedly a distant memory. Yet popular books, magazines and even scientific articles defend inequalities by citing immutable biological differences between the male and female brain. Why are there so few women in science and engineering, so few men in the laundry room? Well, they say, it's our brains.

Sexual Plasticity and Gametogenesis in Fishes

Sexual Plasticity and Gametogenesis in Fishes PDF Author: Balasubramanian Senthilkumaran
Publisher: Nova Science Publishers
ISBN: 9781626188488
Category : Adaptation (Physiology)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Sex determination, differentiation and gamete maturation are well organised molecular events in vertebrates. In vertebrates, sex determination and differentiation are two important events in the development of gonads (testis or ovary). Sex determination is the genetic (sex chromosomes) or environmental process by which the sex (male or female) of an individual is established. During embryonic development, primordial germ cells migrate from the site of origin to the gonadal primordia where they differentiate along with somatic cells and finally form the indifferent/bipotential gonads. Depending on the action of various factors the bipotential gonads give rise to either testis or ovaries. In most vertebrates, excluding fishes and some amphibians, the event of sex determination is controlled genetically and later the progression of gonadal development is controlled by hormones and other factors. Interestingly, these processes in fishes are controlled not only genetically but also through hormones or environmental factors. These characteristics make fish the champions of sex reversal and serve as excellent animal models to precisely understand sexual development. The next interesting aspect is meiotic maturation which is essentially mediated by gonadotropins and progesterone metabolites to trigger final gamete maturation in fishes which is different from mammals. The novel aspects pertaining to gamete maturation has been studied in great detail in fish which depicts precise regulatory events of gamete maturation.

Handbook of the Evolution of Human Sexuality

Handbook of the Evolution of Human Sexuality PDF Author: Michael R. Kauth
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0789035073
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
Human sexuality can be better understood by knowing how sexual psychologies may have evolved throughout the ages. Handbook of the Evolution of Human Sexuality presents a detailed examination of human sexuality, the assumptions about concepts and terms pertaining to sexuality, and the latest theories on the evolution of human sexual attraction. Leading experts explore various aspects of evolutionary theory, with a focus on Evolutionary Psychology (EP). Discussions include mate preferences, mating behavior, mate signaling, pheromones, and same-sex attraction. This comprehensive source also presents three groundbreaking theories of the evolution of same-sex attraction.