Could Crossdressing Be Hereditary ?

[Jeanine]

I got a call from my Cousin Arlene in Chicago last weekend. She called
because her 15 son Robbie has Gynecomastia and has developed large
breasts like I did at 12 and 13 and that he has started crossdressing
as well. She has noticed that somethings in her dresser drawers were
out of place several times, but didn't connect it to her son until she
came home early one day last week to find Robbie in his room with
the door left open, wearing her black lace baby doll nightie, a thong,
black fishnet stockings and a pair of pumps with 4 inch spike heels,
while standing at the mirror fondling himself.

Arlene is three years older than me and she's no prude, she caught
me wearing a very similar outfit once when I was about 13, and she
took me shopping and bought me bras panties, and lingerie long before
Mom took me to the Gender Councilor and before I was allowed to
dress as a female at home ... And I believe her when she says she
was so shocked and dumbstruck that she couldn't speak for about
thirty seconds when she saw her son Robbie in that outfit.

But she thought very quickly and did exactly the right thing. She
just said "Oh excuse me, I didn't know you were in here" and walked
out of Robbie's bedroom closing the door behind her.

Then after a while she called Robbie downstairs th have that
awkward Mother to son talk with him. She told Robbie not to be
ashamed. That all men and women, and boys and girls masturbate
at times and that there's nothing wrong with crossdressing. And
that she would be happy to buy him some bras and lingerie of his
own to keep in his room as long as he didn't wear her things
anymore.

I told Arlene that everything she did was 100 percent correct,
but she still wants me to have a talk with Robbie when I'm in
Chicago next month. I told her that I'd be happy to talk to him,
but I wouldn't be able to add mush to what she has already said,
but Arlene believes that hearing that stuff from a man would be
more reassuring to Robbie

I have read that doctors now believe that Gynecomastia is
probably hereditary ... But now I'm wondering if crossdressing
could be hereditary as well.

Hugs-N-Kisses,
Jeanine

[BarbaraTalbot]

If there is a link between crossdressing and various hormone levels, I would say definitely yes. I have a CD friend on here that I have talked to about her hormone levels and in her case it seems to make sense as in yours with the gynecomastia.

Just WOW on your sister. Give her a hug from all of us when you see her. So wonderful her reaction to you in your you hand in a way, I think it helped her recover quickly to support her son.

[Emily Ann Brown]

Maybe we should take up a collection and buy your cousin something nice for support above and beyond the call of duty.


Emily Ann

[Karren H]

Well who really knows but it may be related, chemically... I have a piturary gland problem that enlarged my breasts... Prolactinoma... Secretion of the female hormone Prolactin which is secreted by women during pregnacy... And the net result is the same, larger breasts and milk production if not treated... and I crossdress.. So whether the two are connected you'll probably never know for sure

[Ruth]

It's a good question and I think the answer, though fairly unsatisfactory, is that there are many routes to CDing and some are triggered by hereditary factors, some are not.
The gynaecomastia would be hereditary I would think, and would , I imagine, lead to ambivalent feelings about body image in the adolescent phase, which in turn might cause the individual to CD, just experimentally. From there on, he might like it, he might not, which is where other factors come in.
I can trace my CDing back to factors in my upbringing, and as far as I know there are no physiological factors involved.

[NovaScotia]

Just add that to the mix. We both had a safe and warm family life. Nothing that would make either of us think that there was a pathosociological trigger to our crossdressing.

[Angie G]

It may well be my dad dressed :hugs:
Angie

[Katelyn]

I don't think it's hereditary at all. I think it's just a preference. More like an expression of who we are. To me, that would be like saying being Goth is hereditary. But who knows? Maybe it is in some cases it can be. This is just my personal opinion. Now about talking to him, you feel that there may not be much you can do that your sister hasn't already done, but it will bring him comfort to know that he's not alone in this. Good Luck and keep us posted.

[Chantelle CD]

Maybe hormone levels are hereditary, Then i have a sister that had high levels of testosterone, and rest didn't, that i know of anyways. Could be.

I tend to think that some souls come into this world, with a deeper ability to feel a larger range of emotions/feelings than the average person, That they play with these feelings cause they can, and puberty, tends to get them going on it as well.

[MarinaTwelve200]

It all depends on what's at the root of one's CD activity.

A hormonal condition could be hereditary, but if one's CD is based on something like SM or thrill seeking, then it wouldn't necessarily be.

Remember, CDing is but a symptom or indicator of some anomolous condition, of which there can be MANY, and which may not be related to each other at all. Some of these conditions may involve gender, sex, or some biological function, while others may involve different aspects of identity, either switching or escaping, tripping taboos, or simply a warped sense of humor.

[sterling12]

I've never seen anything definitive in any of The Literature. But, it seems that too many of us have stories to share about siblings, close relatives, and distant family members who "dressed up." All of my anecdotal evidence points at an Uncle who also dressed.

So, perhaps it's either a "hereditary propensity," or a heck of a lot more of us are dressing than anyone imagines. If we are supposed to be 1 in 20, (5% seems to be an often used figure,) wouldn't it be very unusual for members of the same family to be CD? Heck, I don't even have 20 other people in my Family.

Peace and Love, Joanie

[Denise Marie]

The behaviour of women in general has historically often received less attention than that of men, and cross-dressing is no exception. However, there are some famous examples of cross-dressing female-bodied persons in history.

In modern Western societies, cross-dressing behaviour in women is more difficult to identify as a large number of traditionally men's clothing such as trousers have become socially acceptable for both genders to wear, leaving few types of clothing that are only socially acceptable for men to wear. A woman can even wear men's shirts, trousers, and underwear without it being noticed or considered as crossdressing, as very similar clothing items are produced for women.

Social acceptance plays a large role in the perceived low numbers of women crossdressers for the simple reason that it is far more socially acceptable for a woman to be seen wearing men's clothes than a man to be seen wearing women's clothes. Therefore a woman wearing rugged jeans and a plaid shirt would not garner much attention, whereas a man wearing a skirt and high heels would instantly be deemed a cross-dresser. Since the advent of feminism, women have been held to much more lax standards of gender expression and dress, allowing them to still express their femininity but at the same time not being constrained to the feminine ideal as in ages past. Men, on the other hand, are still subject to the same social constraints that existed before the advent of feminism. Thus, men are being held just as much (if not more) to the same standards of masculinity as in the past, and a display of seemingly opposite gender behaviour on a man's part is socially taboo. Therefore the reason it is so hard to have statistics for female-bodied crossdressers is that the line where non-crossdressing stops and crossdressing begins has become blurred, whereas the same line for men is just as defined. This is one of the many issues being addressed by the modern-day masculist movement, the male-equivalent of the feminist movement.


Classic psychoanalytic views of cross-dressing emphasized the role of taboo in the behaviour. Only items that were proscribed to a gender would be appropriated, and therefore it is not the general association of an item with one sex or the other but the prohibitions against the item that give satisfaction to those with a fetish attachment to cross-dressing. According to this theory, as articles become acceptable for ordinary wear (e.g. a man's necktie on a woman, which passed from taboo to fashion in the 1970s) they will cease to be sought by cross-dressers.

When speaking of historical figures, when cross-dressing is not clearly related to specific events (like an escape or disguise) it is usually impossible to state clearly what the motives for cross-dressing were. This information was rarely recorded or preserved. Documents on the subject are often either court records (where the cross-dressing person may have said whatever they thought would minimize their punishment) or accounts by other people who might not understand the motivations correctly. Furthermore, historic figures were often unable to identify themselves as homosexual, transgender, transsexual, or transvestite because these classifications simply had no names or social recognition in their era.

It can be equally difficult to be certain of the motives of modern day people who cross-dress. The only real proof of motive is that person's own statement. Yet even this is not always certain, as there are examples of people attributing their cross-dressing behaviour to one motive only to later realize that they may have had another reason. The classical example of this would be a transsexual person who initially attributed cross-dressing behaviour to transvestic fetishism (for transwomen) or the utilitarian practicality of male clothing (for transmen).

Another possible motive to cross-dressing is Freud's Sexual Inversion Syndrome , wherein the affected person feels that they are actually the opposite gender.




Cross-dressers may begin wearing their opposite sex's clothing as children, using the clothes of a sibling, parent, or friend. Some parents have said they allowed their children to cross-dress and, in many cases, the child stopped when they became older. It appears that when boys are forbidden to cross-dress, they will try to stop, only to resume doing it later. The same pattern often continues into adulthood, where there may be confrontations with a spouse. Married cross-dressers will experience considerable anxiety and guilt if their spouse objects to their behaviour. Cross-dressers may become obsessive and/or compulsive in their behaviour, if not actually addicted to wearing the opposite sex's clothing . Some have periodically disposed of all their clothing, a practice called "purging", only to start another collection later.

Denise Marie

[angelfire]

I do not believe crossdressing to be hereditary. Yes, hormone imbalances can be, but you aren't a crossdresser because of it. You are a crossdresser because you like to wear clothing of the opposite sex, which I don't think has anything to do with hormones. Its just preference. People like onions, I don't, I prefer garlic. Some people like jeans, I don't, I prefer stockings & skirt. Just preference.

[Eugenie]

I don't think X-dressing is hereditary in the proper sense of the word. There are probably some genetic components to it though.

The difference between an hereditary and a genetic condition being that the hereditary process implies systematic transmission of the condition to the off springs while genetic means that some genes linked to the condition are transmitted in variable amount in the family. Depending upon the amount and which genes are transmitted, the condition is transmitted in various degrees.

A genetic condition may be present in the family at large : a cousin, an uncle, in the family tree may have it, while it is not present in other members of the family.

Some genes indeed trigger some hormones production. And hormones production is likely to be a factor in x-dressing. However there are other factors contributing to x-dressing that are environmental. It is the old Nature vs Nurture debate.

Let's make an analogy outside the domain of x-dressing:

Adult size is a very typical example of genetic transmission. Genes transmitted by the parents trigger the production of hormones that trigger growing up in size and regulate growth around the end of adolescence.

Some as a result grow to be 6 foot six.

But being 6 foot 6 doesn’t make one a basketball player. Without training and an environment that favorizes such training, a tall person won't become a basket ball player. Conversely, a person who is 5 foot 7 has less facilities to become a basket ball player, but some, through passion and motivation linked to a favorable environment will work very hard and become excellent basket bal players.

I think that it is somewhat similar in the case of X-dressing. There may be genetic factors that predispose a child to become an x-dresser, but it is just a predisposition, not turning necessarily to full x-dressing. And some of us may just have been influences by early experiences linked to their environment which have made them become x-dressers.

I have a recent example of the combination of genes and environment that was provided in a French speaking CD forum. A young man had always had a smooth skin, no hair where most men tend to have too many (Do most of us here know too well that situation). He wasn't a x-dresser until, at the age of 28, he was induced in trying to dress as a woman by some friends who had found him to be very androgynous. This triggered a new way of life for him...

Without the initial "gift" of being hairless his friends would never have thought of feminizing him... And without those friends, regardless of his "gift" he probably would never have x-dressed "en femme" by himself.

Note that there is an ongoing discussion about the genetic nature or not of X-dressing on a forum dedicated to Asperger's syndrome and transgender.
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/TransgenderPDD/
Asperger's syndrome being in all likelihood a genetic condition. The question discussed there is "Is X-dressing genetically transmissible in the absence of Asperger's syndrome in the family?"

This question may concern a few members of crossdressers.com too...
:hugs:
Eugenie

[Sally-Ann]

But being 6 foot 6 doesn’t make one a basketball player. Without training and an environment that favorizes such training, a tall person won't become a basket ball player.

Interestingly enough, this parallels my own beliefs with regard to sexuality. I believe that neither nature, or nurture are solely to blame; rather that there is a predisposition to a certain sexuality (hetro being the most common), but certain social factors (family, friends, media etc.) have an influence on the direction in which sexuality develops.

I know that my own bi-sexuality owes a lot to my mother's attitude towards me (spot the cliche! :) ) when my brother was born. (Opening up moment here girls...) If my mother hadn't (to quote one aunt) "dropped me like a hot potato" when my brother came along, I wouldn't have been desperate for attention, and I wouldn't have experimented with some of the other boys at school, and I wouldn't have discovered my bisexuality.

I'm not saying that I wouldn't have discovered it another way, but it's quite possible that, without that drive to find attention and affection, I might not have discovered it until much later, and it may well have expressed itself in a different way, or with a different degree of influence over my life.

Someone pass me my :drink: :)

[Denise Marie]

I am of the belief that crossdressing begins at childhood,and to a certain extent it maybe behaviour which is learned if encouraged by siblings.I recently looked at photos of myself while on holidays in the sth of Ireland,I came across one photo of me in a girls bathing costume.I was only three at the time so therefore was blissfully unaware of what I was wearing.I can also remember incidents when I dressed in my sisters nightgown and been encouraged to do so my other children,it was always the girls who done the encouraging.Then to be found out my Brother in later life and to be called a queer which was very hurtful,and yet he was one of the children that encouraged me to dress up when we were kids.You know sometimes I can't figure it out,maybe I don't want to figure it out.

Denise Marie

[Twyla]

If CD would be hereditary that fact would be well known in our community. The fact that none of us heard such thing makes me believe that it's not hereditary.

It's not sure that the gynecomastia is a natural process in this case. Maybe he uses feminizing hormones but he's ashamed to admit it.
I think that buying him feminine clothes is a positive step but it's far from beeing enough. I think he(/she?) needs a full medical investigation because it's not sure that it's just plain crossdressing. It may be TG or there may be health problems requiring medical intervention.

[Chrissy8888]

This is a rather interesting post. I am not sure if cross dressing is hereditary or not. As far as I know I am the only one in my family that dresses. My family is pretty open when asked about things but does not discuss things without being asked. I do think that many factors play into cross dressing. Like many people have said in every post on here for some it is a fetish (sexual) thing. Others have said it stems from things in the past. Looking at this post some feel that hormonal levels can also have a factor in it. I think all are very true. That is what defines the individual cross dresser type. In my case I feel it may be hormonal. I am as a man a little more emotional as a genetic woman would be. As a cross dresser I would easily define myself as TG.

I think it is great that your cousin is asking you to talk to your nephew. You might think she has answered all of his questions. Not only will you be reassuring him that what he is doing is OK but you will also be able to answer many questions that he will have that she cannot since she herself is not a MTF cross dresser. I remember when I first started I thought it was cool, felt good, and was almost a fetish. Then as I got older things changed. It lost the excitement and became a way to relax. At that time I was very uncomfortable with myself. It did make me question who exactly I was. Was I even a real man. Now I realize that it is just part of me. It no longer relaxes me, it does nothing for me sexually. To a large degree it feels very natural. I feel complete when I am dressed.

I think these are the kinds of things that you will be able to answer for him. I also feel that you will fell awkward talking with him. However you may feel better about yourself as you will be defining who you are.

Good luck!

[danam]

For what it is worth, gynecomastia occured for me at 16, well after I knew I was a crossdresser. I kindof figured that I dreamed so much about having breasts that my mind convinced my body to grow one. When it happened (or, actually, when it was diagnosed) I couldn't wait for surgery to remove it, because I knew that I wasn't TG and wanted a normal guy life otherwise. Some bittersweet memories--the excitement of having a breast but the emotional pain of not being physically a "normal" guy. In the end, it was best to have it removed.

[Carol123]

I think maybe yes it can be passed along,my father also dressed

[Sally-Ann]

I think maybe yes it can be passed along,my father also dressed

Is that heredity (ie genetics), or the environment in which you grew up? I still think there's a bit of both personally.

[Eugenie]

Again, hereditary and genetic are not equivalent concepts.

Hereditary goes directly from one generation to the other and basically you can't escape the transmission. Of course heredity is based upon genetic processes but in a very deterministic matter.

Genetic is a broader concept. Some genes may be transmitted to the next generation while some can stay dormant or even get lost in the transmission.
If there is a genetic component to x-dressing it is of the second sort just genetic and not hereditary. Which means that a father who is x-dresser may or may not have a son who is xdresser.

However there might be a cousin or an uncle who is also x-dresser. I said may, not will. It isn't a deterministic process but a random process. That's why it is very difficult to study it scientifically, especially since quite a lot of x-dressers don't ever want to speak about it. So if a grand uncle was a x-dresser one is unlikely to have known about.

I say that as I suspect that one of my grand uncles had x-dressing tendencies which were of course far less expressed in his time as they could be nowadays... Here we get the role of the environment...
:hugs:
Eugenie

[Jilmac]

I got a call from my Cousin Arlene in Chicago last weekend. She called
because her 15 son Robbie has Gynecomastia and has developed large
breasts like I did at 12 and 13 and that he has started crossdressing
as well. She has noticed that somethings in her dresser drawers were
out of place several times, but didn't connect it to her son until she
came home early one day last week to find Robbie in his room with
the door left open, wearing her black lace baby doll nightie, a thong,
black fishnet stockings and a pair of pumps with 4 inch spike heels,
while standing at the mirror fondling himself.

Arlene is three years older than me and she's no prude, she caught
me wearing a very similar outfit once when I was about 13, and she
took me shopping and bought me bras panties, and lingerie long before
Mom took me to the Gender Councilor and before I was allowed to
dress as a female at home ... And I believe her when she says she
was so shocked and dumbstruck that she couldn't speak for about
thirty seconds when she saw her son Robbie in that outfit.

But she thought very quickly and did exactly the right thing. She
just said "Oh excuse me, I didn't know you were in here" and walked
out of Robbie's bedroom closing the door behind her.

Then after a while she called Robbie downstairs th have that
awkward Mother to son talk with him. She told Robbie not to be
ashamed. That all men and women, and boys and girls masturbate
at times and that there's nothing wrong with crossdressing. And
that she would be happy to buy him some bras and lingerie of his
own to keep in his room as long as he didn't wear her things
anymore.

I told Arlene that everything she did was 100 percent correct,
but she still wants me to have a talk with Robbie when I'm in
Chicago next month. I told her that I'd be happy to talk to him,
but I wouldn't be able to add mush to what she has already said,
but Arlene believes that hearing that stuff from a man would be
more reassuring to Robbie

I have read that doctors now believe that Gynecomastia is
probably hereditary ... But now I'm wondering if crossdressing
could be hereditary as well.

Hugs-N-Kisses,
Jeanine

hi jeanine, jill here, i don't know how the other girls responded but all i can say is, as far as i know, i'm the only one among my siblings, cousins, uncles and distant relatives who crossdresses. i don't see it as being heritary, but i could be wrong. the fact that you and robbie both dress could just be a happy coincidence. Jill

[trannie T]

From everything I've read on the subject nobody knows what causes us to become crossdressers. It may be behavioral, genetic or heriditary. I think it's either sunspots or those nuclear tests. Has anyone seen a good scienticic study on this?

[Vaerise]

I saw a video regarding gays, transgendered children in a documentary, I can't remember exactly where but I think its 60 minutes and some report I read elsewhere.

What they covered is that all babies are born female in the womb. During the fetal stages, I'm not entirely sure as I don't study gynecology. It is also said that the X & Y chromosomes determine whether the default female baby will be conceive as either male or female.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virilization

The intriguing part in the report & documentary that I read states that virilization occurs not only in the womb but also during puberty stages and it is a complicated process and is not foolproof. Meaning errors can occur halfway, and incomplete virilization will result in certain deviancy from the norm.

They use this to explain why there are so much deviancy from the norm in males. Gays, MtF CD/TS. The ratio of Lesbians, FtM CD/TS seems to be lesser than the Gays, MtF CD/TS. Their reasoning is that female babies were already born female by default and were not subjected to being virlized and resulted in less errors.

At this stage they can't it scientifically but it does seem like a viable explanation.