Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Spontaneous Human Chimeras, Homosexuality, & Transgender: A Causal Link

In ”Embryogenesis Of Chimeras, Twins And Anterior Midline Asymmetries”, Dr. Charles Boklage posits Chimeras are not as rare as previously thought and in fact 1 in 8 of us may be chimeras and are not aware of our conditions.

What can be considered rare is the motivation to detect a chimera. Indeed, in his book "How New Humans are Made", Dr. Boklage asserts most chimeras have no physical abnormalities and indeed look like everyone else. He also adds that Chimerism need not be present in the blood. So without physical abnormalities or strange blood typing to act as a motivation, there is little or no reason for a clinician to pursue the diagnosis.

While there may be no physical signs of chimerism, the condition might be expressed in the behavior of a chimera. The creation or artifical chimeras lends creedence to this idea. The creation of artificial “brain chimeras” is becoming a routine practice in the field of neurobiology. One such study conducted by German scientists created a brood of Japanese quails with female brains and male physiology.

“Male Japanese quails with female brains do not show male sexual behaviors”

The male quail chimeras with female brains did not display mounting or crowing behavior. It is a scientific fact the hypothalamus–pituitary–gonad (HPG) axis coordinates displays of sexual behavior with reproductive physiology. Sexual brain development therefore defines the ability of brain areas, including the neural part of the HPG axis, to respond to particular physiological signals in adulthood.

Could it be a that spontaneous human chimera arising from a plural pregnancy (boy & girl) might display similar behaviors? Indeed, in "Stem Cells for Dummies" Goldstein and Schneider describe the formation of a chimera:
Two zygotes travel down the fallopian tubes towards the uterus, growing and dividing into multiple celled embryos as they go. The growing embryos come into contact with each other, and one absorbs the other or they fuse together. The absorbed embryo supplies cells with it's own DNA to the body of the developing embryo. The resulting baby (and eventually adult) is composed of cells with two different genetic libraries -- one set of cells from each of the two embryos that fused.
When merging occurs, the embryos are little more than brain primordia. It is possible the merging of brain primordia from a boy and girl could create a hybrid brain structure or more appropriately a hybrid HPG axis – – both male and female at once.

I believe sometimes the merging creates a human with same-sex attraction, other times merging creates a human with gender confusion, and sometimes perhaps no effect at all. It would largely depend on the physics of the collision of the two embryos as to how the resulting chimera would form.

8 comments:

  1. Christy,

    I have read your post and find it rather interesting. I also found Dr. Bocklage's article informative. In rattling around my brain the minutia of gender, the subject of chimera came up. I especially find it interesting considering the following...

    People who are plain vanilla XY in their genetic makeup and go through SRS will remain XY after surgery. Hormones will affect how they feel but their genetic makeup will remain unchanged. I will probably get a lot of flack from this. If there is a study out there proving me wrong I will be humbled and further educated.

    Chimeras can be a mixture of male (XY) and female (XX) DNA. Speaking of studies, I for one am curious if there are any true XX/XY chimeras who have undergone SRS and what natural DNA adjustments have taken place on these people. I presume that any DNA changes, observed if any would be the result of the hormone therapy and not the surgery itself which is purely physical.

    Furthermore, I presume that a person who is XY in their body and XX in their brain as you propose would be such a person who would strongly require SRS. They would find themselves in group 3 of Dr. Benjamin's scale.

    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_jJepePwUw6g/TEbZJLerRbI/AAAAAAAAAPo/8eFC_IidDg0/s1600/benjamin.gif

    Copy and paste to your browser if the link doesn't work. It's from Jack Molay's crossdreamers blog.

    The vast space of gender identity and where we all fit in it is a large landscape, mefeels. Hopefully as we travel the blogosphere we leave behind us something for those who will follow is.
    And THAT, I believe is doing God's work.

    And I strongly believe you are very right on your observation that chimeras are a natural part of God's plan. God doesn't make mistakes. That's why we are blessed with variety.

    Sorry about the repost, I needed to clarify that last paragraph.

    Sarah

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  2. Caroline Cossey (aka Tula) is alleged to be an XXXY

    see http://zagria.blogspot.com/2008/10/caroline-cossey-1954-model.html

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    Replies
    1. Being XXXY is a case of intersex, different to chimerism.

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  3. @ Sarah: I believe the strength of desire for cross-gender expression is in direct correlation to the configuration of the HPG axis. So a person whose forebrain is female would be in Benjamin's group 3.

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  4. Christy-

    Thank you so much for putting on "emily's virtual rocket"!

    Sincerely,

    ezs

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  5. Christy -

    SRS, hormones, indeed any medical procedure currently around cannot change DNA. If someone is XY, they will remain XY. If someone had an XX brain and an XY body or some combination of that, it still wouldn't change at all. No drugs currently available change DNA, not even hormones.

    There are ways to rewrite the DNA of bacteria, and even human cells in culture (not in the body,) using viruses or small pieces of DNA which can insert themselves into the existing DNA. However these have not entered human trials and are still at least a decade away, I'd say.

    Even then, to change EVERY cell in the body (billions) from a Y (very small) to an X (very large) would be a massive job. With our current technology, it's just impossible.

    Fortunately, the body can be changed without changing genes.

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  6. I ran across this in lit search while revising (again) an hypothesis paper I have submitted for years now. But every journal always has at least one reviewer who finds the idea not to their liking.

    I would like to discuss with you. Since there is no other way to contact, I'll leave an email here for you.
    hapless(dot)scientist(at)gmail.com

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  7. As an entertaining question. I myself am a chimera through means of a stem cell transplant for ALL way back in 1987 / 88. genetically born male and my sister was my stem cell donor. I am also transgender, I find in part that my "male" self never really developed genetically. (Tried testosterone and growth hormones for many years). After an aspiration a few years ago and learning my sister's DNA was still very active in my bone marrow. I began to question my gender. No identifying as a female and taking estrogen I feel more myself. My question, would pertain to gender reassignment surgery. being in my current state. do you believe surgeries would be held to as medically necessary, for this type of matter?

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