Can Anyone Help re Neuroplasticity

[Natasha_C]

I wondered if anyone can please help ? Yesterday I had my meeting with my National Health Service psychiatrist and it all went really well. She’s now preparing my referral to Charing Cross and I am soooo happy.

She was very helpful throughout. She said she was more than happy to refer me as this had been with me since childhood, I was not taking any drugs, nor did I have any mental illness etc & is now writing to both Charing Cross and my doctor.

But at the end of the appointment I told her my theory was I was born with a female brain in a male body and she told me to research “neuroplasticity”. I’ve investigated this today, and unless I’m mistaken, this seems to be a science about how our brains are physically changed through early impressions which lead to our brain gender & becoming transexual, rather than being born this way.

In either instance it still confirms this a physical brain condition rather than psychological, but neuroplasticity seems to be how our brains adapted and physically changed to become this way, rather than being born this way.

I’m not sure if she’s trying to confuse me with science but I wondered has anyone come across this term before related to transexualism, and have I read & understood this correctly ?

[Melody Moore]

Sounds to me that she is not very transgender friendly, because she has packed you neatly away into her own little
box to come out with a statement like that. But I think that is good that she has referred you on to the right people.

[ReineD]

She may have been saying that your feminine gender came from a hormonal wash during your mother's pregnancy, rather than being encoded in your genes. The hormone wash theory, or any other external non-genetic influence would fit in with neuroplasticity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity


Plasticity occurs on a variety of levels, ranging from cellular changes involved in learning, to large-scale changes involved in cortical remapping in response to injury. The most widely recognized forms of plasticity are learning, memory, and recovery from brain damage.

[Zenith]

I attended a presentation on Neuronal Plasticity in the CNS of male rats dosed with estrogen. It refers to a dynamic change of the neuronal pathways. Not enough studies have been done to make any conclusions relating to transsexuals. It could be that the pathways are altered in early brain development before birth for a number of reasons. So it's possible that indeed one is born this way.

[Melody Moore]

Reine,

While other factor such as genetics can come into play, it states clearly in the very first paragraph...


Neuroplasticity is a non-specific neuroscience term referring to the ability of the brain and nervous
system in all species to change structurally and functionally as a result of input from the environment
So it sounds like she is of the belief that it is the result of social conditioning or environmental influences.

[Zenith]

Reine,

While other factor such as genetics can come into play, it states clearly in the very first paragraph...


So it sounds like she is of the belief that it is the result of social conditioning or environmental influences.

Not necessarily. Developmental biology is highly contingent on environmental factors. Morphogenic gradients can alter which end of a Drosophila embryo is the head and which is the tail. Look up "Bicoid" and it's role in maternal patterning...

[ReineD]

I take it, Melody, that hormones received in utero would classify as an biological environmental influence, as opposed to a genetic coding.

Hey Zenith, nice to see ya!! :hugs:

[Zenith]

I take it, Melody, that hormones received in utero would classify as an biological environmental influence, as opposed to a genetic coding.

Hey Zenith, nice to see ya!! :hugs:

I think that's the key, some things may not be in the DNA, but they are irreversible coding that goes at the core of the organism nonetheless...

Hi Reine, I'm getting ready to take off from here, but had to throw my two cents into this since I did study Developmental biology....

[Natasha_C]

I’m so grateful for all your replies. If it helps it came up after I had said to her how I felt I had been born with a female brain in a male body.. She then said “is this what you’ve been told.. who’s told you this.. have you heard of neuroplasticity”

I think Melody you may be close in that she’s compartmented me, & also wanted to show her authority in the field.

The thing is I am trying to move forward knowing I cant change how I am, and this can touch nerves of blaming others, and regressing someone (she knew nothing of my past). She also mentioned “take this word back to your group.. I’ll write it down” almost perhaps like a challenge.

The most important thing is I know none of this changes my thoughts and feelings or the path I’m on, & also I now have my doorway to Charing Cross which is more important than anything. I’m just confused what message (if any) she was trying to give me.

[ReineD]

Hi Reine, I'm getting ready to take off from here, but had to throw my two cents into this since I did study Developmental biology....

Well, have a great day, and now I know who to call on if I ever have a question! :hugs:

[donnalee]

Is it possible she's trying to do a little research on her own? In the end, the cause doesn't matter; what is, is.