ReviewArchives of sexual behavior2016
A Review of the Status of Brain Structure Research in Transsexualism.
Review in Archives of sexual behavior, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
52 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 140 citations in OpenAlex.
- Structural, Functional, and Metabolic Brain Differences as a Function of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation: A Systematic Review of the Human Neuroimaging Literature.Archives of sexual behavior · 2021Pooled it
- Digit ratio (2D:4D) and transgender identity: new original data and a meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2020Pooled it
- Comparisons of thalamocortical functional connectivity in transgender women and cisgender individuals: associations with cognition in a Chinese cohort.Dialogues in clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- Sex, Gender, and the Search for Analytic Truth.Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI · 2026Article
- Social Cognition in Adolescents with Gender Dysphoria and Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia: A Preliminary Investigation of Biological vs. Experiential Gender EffectsJournal of clinical research in pediatric endocrinology · 2026Article
- Neuropsychological Functioning in Transgender Adults: Evidence from a University-Based Gender Identity Clinic in Türkiye.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Brain Sex: Differences That Do Not Differentiate.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025Article
- White Matter Microstructure Among Straight and Gay Cisgender Men, Sao Praphet Song, and Straight Cisgender Women in Thailand.Human brain mapping · 2025Article
- Sex Reassignment Surgery, Marriage, and Reproductive Rights of Intersex and Transgender People in Sunni Islam.Archives of sexual behavior · 2024Article
- After the trans brain: a critique of the neurobiological accounts of embodied trans* identities.History and philosophy of the life sciences · 2024Article
- Pain mechanisms in the transgender individual: a review.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms of the metabotropic glutamate receptors in a transgender population.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Article
- White matter microstructure in transmasculine and cisgender adolescents: A multiparametric and multivariate study.PloS one · 2024Article
- CBLL1 is hypomethylated and correlates with cortical thickness in transgender men before gender affirming hormone treatment.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- How to Ensure Inclusivity in Large-Scale General Population Cohort Studies? Lessons Learned with Regard to Including and Assessing Sex, Gender, and Sexual Orientation.Archives of sexual behavior · 2023Article
- Cortical Structure Differences in Relation to Age, Sexual Attractions, and Gender Dysphoria in Adolescents: An Examination of Mean Diffusivity and T1 Relaxation Time.Brain sciences · 2023Article
- Alterations in the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus - a specific neural correlate of gender incongruence?Psychological medicine · 2023Article
- Concordance for Gender Dysphoria in Genetic Female Monozygotic (Identical) Triplets.Archives of sexual behavior · 2022Article
- Whole-brain dynamics differentiate among cisgender and transgender individuals.Human brain mapping · 2022Article
- Transwoman Elite Athletes: Their Extra Percentage Relative to Female Physiology.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The present review focuses on the brain structure of male-to-female (MtF) and female-to-male (FtM) homosexual transsexuals before and after cross-sex hormone treatment as shown by in vivo neuroimaging techniques. Cortical thickness and diffusion tensor imaging studies suggest that the brain of MtFs presents complex mixtures of masculine, feminine, and demasculinized regions, while FtMs show feminine, masculine, and defeminized regions. Consequently, the specific brain phenotypes proposed for MtFs and FtMs differ from those of both heterosexual males and females. These phenotypes have theoretical implications for brain intersexuality, asymmetry, and body perception in transsexuals as well as for Blanchard's hypothesis on sexual orientation in homosexual MtFs. Falling within the aegis of the neurohormonal theory of sex differences, we hypothesize that cortical differences between homosexual MtFs and FtMs and male and female controls are due to differently timed cortical thinning in different regions for each group. Cross-sex hormone studies have reported marked effects of the treatment on MtF and FtM brains. Their results are used to discuss the early postmortem histological studies of the MtF brain.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.