Maryse, I have never had any gender confusion, have always been female;
however, at age 43 my ovaries were removed due to ovarian cancer.  Also due
to ovarian cancer I never had any HRT.  Sure makes  one wonder.  Did a lot
of flea bombing. Grandfather had PD.  Could there be multiple causes?
Ray
----- Original Message -----
From: "M.Schild" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2005 4:10 AM
Subject: His and hers brain


> Last Updated: Sunday, 23 October 2005, 22:56 GMT 23:56 UK
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4365540.stm
>
> E-mail this to a friend
> Printable version
>
>
>
> Your brain's sex can make you ill
>
>
>
> By Michelle Roberts
> BBC News health reporter
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Male and female brains look and work differently
>
>
> Scientists say they have proof that the sex of the brain makes men and
> women
> more prone to different diseases.
>
> Doctors know that women are more likely than men to have depression,
> anxiety
> or an eating disorder, while men are at higher risk of Parkinson's
> disease.
>
>
> Post-mortem and brain imaging studies show that male and female brains are
> physically different.
>
>
> Now scientists say they can to link the two together and suggest future
> disease cures may be "gender-specific".
>
>
> Male or female brain?
>
>
> The sex of a brain is decided in the mother's womb and depends, among
> other
> factors, on hormone levels.
>
>
> Higher levels of testosterone makes a male brain and oestrogen a female
> one.
>
>
>
> We should be looking at diseases as male and female
>
> Professor Swaab
>
>
>
> Test your brain's sex
>
>
> Professor Dick Swaab from The Netherlands Institute for Brain Research in
> Amsterdam, said the evidence for this comes from studies of transsexuals -
> people who know, often from a very early age, that they are born in the
> wrong
> gender body.
>
>
> "The theory is that the sex difference in the sex organs develops early in
> pregnancy - in the first few months while in utero - while sexual
> differentiation of the brain occurs later in the second half of pregnancy
> and
> postnatally."
>
>
> That would mean certain factors could interfere with the sexual
> differentiation of the sex organs and brain in an independent way because
> there is a time lapse between the two.
>
>
> "If that was true you would expect to see female structures in male
> brains.
> That is indeed what people have found - a reversed sex difference in the
> brain of transsexuals."
>
>
> Brain gender diseases
>
>
> He said that because men and women's brains are different "we should be
> looking at diseases as male and female".
>
>
> "There is a different sex ratio for neurological and psychiatric diseases.
>
>
> "In depression, it is very clear that sex hormones are directly
> interfering
> with the stress axis in the brain.
>
>
>
> BRAIN SEX FACTS
>
> Women tend to be better at empathising - guessing other's emotions and
> responding appropriately
>
> Men are generally better at systemising - investigating how a system works
>
>
>
> "We have shown that sensitive proteins [receptors] for sex hormones are
> present in the cells that form the stress axis. In women there are more
> oestrogen receptors and in men more androgen receptors present.
>
>
> "That results in higher prevalence of depression in women compared to men
> because the stress axis is more sensitive.
>
>
> "The oestrogens are directly affecting the production of the stress
> peptides.
>
>
> "So for the same amount of stress in the environment, women are more prone
> to
> develop depression than men."
>
>
> Others have shown that hormone levels could play a part in multiple
> sclerosis.
>
>
> Dr Carlo Pozzilli and colleagues at the University La Sapienza in Italy
> found
> that women with MS had lower levels of the male hormone testosterone
> throughout their monthly cycle compared to women who did not have MS.
>
>
> Dr Glenda Gillies and colleagues at Imperial College London have been
> looking
> at Parkinson's Disease, which is far more common in men than in women.
>
>
> "The idea is that perhaps oestrogen is being neuroprotective so that the
> neurones that degenerate in PD don't seem to be as susceptible to the
> processes in women as they are in men," she said.
>
>
> By looking at rats they found this was the case to some extent.
>
>
> Female rats who had their ovaries removed became just as prone to a
> chemically
> induced condition similar to PD as male rats.
>
>
> When these female mice were given extra oestrogen they got back their
> natural
> protection against PD as well.
>
>
> Similarly, when they took away the source of the testosterone in male rats
> by
> castrating them, the brain degeneration was lessened.
>
>
> However, surprisingly, when they gave the male mice oestrogen the damage
> was
> even worse.
>
>
> His n' Hers drugs
>
>
> Dr Gillies said: "Administering oestrogen in the two sexes seems to have
> opposite effects.
>
>
>
> I think we are realising that drugs have to be personalised
>
> Dr Glenda Gillies, Imperial College London
>
>
>
> "It may well be that there is something that has been programmed
> differently
> in the brain during early development to make it respond in a different
> way."
>
>
> She said work suggested that oestrogen might also help prevent strokes and
> Alzheimer's disease, but that it was still very early days.
>
>
> "Increasingly, I think we are realising that drugs have to be personalised
> and
> that one drug is not necessarily going to be the same for each
> individual."
>
>
> She said that most of the drugs available today had been tested on men,
> which
> may mean they are not necessarily the best design for women.
>
>
> Anita Holdcroft, consultant anaesthetist also from Imperial College
> London,
> agrees.
>
>
> She said not only are male and female brains different, but women's brains
> change throughout life in relation to fluctuating hormone levels.
>
>
> "That may well affect disease states and how drugs work."
>
>
> She scanned the brains of women before and after they were pregnant and
> found
> the brain shrank during pregnancy.
>
>
> The shrinkage was even greater if the woman had a complication of
> pregnancy
> called preeclampsia, but reversed by six months after delivery of the
> baby.
>
>
> "We need studies to find out why these things are happening.
>
>
> "It may well affect disease states and how drugs work and highlights our
> lack
> of understanding," she said.
>
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