Is there a genetic pre-disposition to crossdressing?

I've noticed, on this forum, a recurring trait. Alot of us have mentioned that they were 'born to crossdress'. by that I mean, naturally feminine, slight, very little body hair, inate feminine mannerisms, instinctively sit cross-legged, female curves. Then there's anti-male traits. Hating sports, rejecting male companionship, etc.
I know this has been explored as 'nature vs. nurture', 'chicken or egg'. Also, does it differ if you consider yourself CD, or any of the 'trans' categories. What's your opinion, is there a genetic pre-disposition to dressing, or is it luck of the draw? Are some people just lucky to have been born with a smaller frame, less body hair etc?
For a long time I thought it was just my Nordic heritage that I only have to shave my legs every three weeks, my arms once a season, and never my chest. I despised school sports, loved playing Barbie with my sister, and would choose a pink car over any other on the lot. So I've wondered, was this part of some pre-determined cosmic plan? Did my mother breast feed me too long? Or maybe just the big bang theory of all practical jokes (if you've heard my femme voice you would realize that God definately has a sense of humor).
I have developed a category for myself- Grudgingly genetic male, who missed the boat on transition, so eventually settled happily for full time CDing.
Was our very fibre built this way, or did we develop into it?- Celeste

There is evidence of a birth order influence on male homosexuality and transgenderism. It only explains about 35% of the variation, but it's the single largest observable factor. Speculation I is that the chemistry or hormonal environment of the womb is influenced by previous male births. The explanation works in my case, since I have a bunch of older brothers with no sisters in between.

Interesting comment on birth order. I have older brothers and no sisters and have always felt the draw to be a girl. I just suppressed it for a long time.

Marcy

for me it is a case of a birth defect. I was supposed to be a girl and something went wrong and some male attributes snuck in. I actually have less body hair then all the males in my family and less than most of the women. It wasn't my upbringing because that was strongly geared toward making me a man. It just didn't stick. I too loved barbies, doll houses, playing pretend. Never much for sports or big on cars, hunting or any of the boy stuff. I knew quite young I wanted to be a girl. But genetic? That would mean there are / were others in my family that was also like this. Oh my which one would that be....now I am going to be wondering all night about this.

Yep I had an older brother and no sister as well.

I consider myself in the middle of the gender spectrum, sometimes called dual-gendered or bi-gendered. While growing up I was as comfortable playing army with my brother and guy friends as I was playing dolls with my girl cousins. While I've never been particularly athletic I can't say that I hate sports, and currently I'm training to run a half marathon. I have copious amounts of body hair, during the summer I have to shave my legs and chest daily, and I have a heavy beard shadow, even immediately after shaving. I am not slight in stature, standing 6' tall and weigh 190lbs. My mother did take DES during both of her pregnancies, but my older brother is, as far as I know, not transgendered.

I don't know if there is a genetic cause for being transgendered, or perhaps an epigenetic cause. I suspect, based the fact that although there are some commonalities between most transgenders there is also such a wide diversity among those along the gender spectrum, that there may be more than one cause.

It may boil down to the same reason some of us like broccoli and some don't......I do.

this is a fantastic question. I've been trying to figure this out too. Why the hell do I like to dress like a girl? In my case of family, I have one older brother. He doesn't CD as far as I know. I've always wanted a sister and girls have sort of been unreachable for me. It seems I just have been unable to dig out my male instincts to seduce a girl and to be aggressive. Girls want assertive, aggressive guys to lead them and this will create natural attraction. I consider myself straight possible leaning toward bi, but a bit undecided. I absolutely love girls and want to have a g/f but it just seems like it's hopeless every time I want to approach and create a convo, it basically goes nowhere. Somehow I blame my desire to BE the other side than to HAVE the other side for this lack of confidence but I don't know.

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Originally Posted by Radina

this is a fantastic question. I've been trying to figure this out too. Why the hell do I like to dress like a girl? In my case of family, I have one older brother. He doesn't CD as far as I know. I've always wanted a sister and girls have sort of been unreachable for me. It seems I just have been unable to dig out my male instincts to seduce a girl and to be aggressive. Girls want assertive, aggressive guys to lead them and this will create natural attraction. I consider myself straight possible leaning toward bi, but a bit undecided. I absolutely love girls and want to have a g/f but it just seems like it's hopeless every time I want to approach and create a convo, it basically goes nowhere. Somehow I blame my desire to BE the other side than to HAVE the other side for this lack of confidence but I don't know.

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I am quite the opposite. I have always been able to talk to females and have been told I am quite the charmer by them. The problem is they soon tire of me because I am not aggressive or "manly" enough and the get bored.

I am not certain ? But when I was a boy never played with other boys But played with dolls with girls. My mother first dressed me as a girl when I was about seven years old. 3 of my cousins are CDs. Two girl cousins are lesbians.So maybe there is some truth in the Idea that being a CD is hereditary in my case. I have a low testosterone level Though I know that being a CD can be a sexual thing for many.

I was with you for the first 19 words. The rest is just opinion about femininity. A genetic predisposition exists in the brain, not the body. Your brain dictates what and who you are. General hairlessness, as an example, is just a hereditary trait and does not influence brain chemistry.

I'm just going to throw my hat into the ring and say that I know that my Grandfather on my mum's side was a crossdresser. I only remember this because one time he was riding his bike and got into an accident with another car while wearing a dress.

Hi,

I was born a bit different. was not till my brain started to work properly & at age 10 i knew what i was though no words to express that nore could i . i knew i was intersexed, & as i was growing it was in a way as females would, you did not ? any thing in our day only if you wonted to be taken to the nuthouse, no thanks,

I had a hate of boys or men clothes that has lasted most of my life, dont have any now of cause, Mum must have known because i told her one day i will not ever buy any male clothes so Mom did , & then Jos took over where Mom left off same thing Jos knew as well , did not know then i was / am intersexed, that came later after 24 years of marrage,

Does not matter now of cause, im just a woman, & that saved a lot of problems & caused a lot as well. pretty much all over now,

...noeleena...

I have known plenty of folks, TV and TS alike, who were not petite and/or hairy and/or were into sports and other traditionally masculine activities. Offhand, probably more than half of folks I have met over the years would not be viewed as being "naturally" feminine (and it applies to me as well.) On the other side, I have known men who who were petite, or were not interested in sport etc. and have never identified as the opposite sex (at least that I knew of.)

I seemed to be softer than my brothers from the beginning, but enjoyed all of the "masculine" activities of being a boy until age 10. While at home alone, I ventured into my mom's room and saw a wig she had. Never thought of wearing anything girly up to that point. I put the wig on and something unexplainable happened. Suddenly I found myself wearing her bra, panties, a pair of shorts, a top, and putting on her makeup. When I saw myself in a feminine image, I couldn't put it away. I've been dressing ever since. Genetic? Who knows. But it is something I've continued to do for years. And when I'm dressed and just hanging around the house, I feel totally comfortable as a "girl".

I don't know why, but feel I was born with an attraction to girly things. I may have posted this before (sorry). I was the first born. When I was about 5 years old, my mom would do laundry, and pile the clean clothes in the living room on the floor and fold them when all was done. I remember going in there and searching out her bras and panties and putting them on. Back then there were a couple boys that lived near but I didn't play much with them, I preferred going to the house across the street where they had three daughters - we played house together. I feel at that age, this was not somthing from outside that had an effect on me, but was from the inside.

AFAIK there is no conclusive scientific consensus on this issue. Is it learned behaviour, genetics, a bit of both? No one really knows.

Some day someone will write a paper on it, I still wont understand it and I will carry on as before. :)

I spent my child hood, playing Army, or Cowboys, when with the boys, and playing with doll houses and dolls when playing with the girls, and enjoyed both.
I always loved playing dress up, wither it was a cowboy hat, or a skirt, loved to play football, and baseball as well. I started dressing at around 6 years old, and never saw a connection, between that and how I played. While I never had a lot of body hair, neither did any of the other males in the family, but as both of my brothers have spent all there adult lives with beards, and are very macho, I don't think either of them ever dressed, and I would say by my fathers reaction the one time he caught me, I doubt he did either.

I don't go for the idea that a small frame, feminine features, little body hair, etc. makes one "born to crossdress". On this forum we have heard from all body sizes and shapes. What might be true is that those "more feminine" looking crossdressers are more likely to go public. Many have lamented that they desire to go out but because of strong masculine features do not believe they can possibly pass, so they stay in.

I have an older brother--18 months older than me. Birth order effect--maybe--cause of cding, maybe.
I was also a bit small for my age and rather shy, quiet, nerdy. Unathletic. Hate competition--because I always lose. But if you are small and skinny--you adapt--because athletics is not your thing. Science major.
However, now, small and skinny works out nicely for crossdressing. Passable--from sufficient distance at least.
For years, I thought I crossdressed because I had a small frame and was so shy. Now I have met large athletic crossdressers--so that theory is not helpful.
Your mother's hormones do not influence you as a baby. Your own hormones are most important. And there are probably two brain sex attributes. Sexual orientation. And sexual identity,( and variations of identity).
Somehow cds are stimulated by clothes of the opposite sex. I don't think this "stimulation" applies to natal women. They are women or TS.

If there is a genetic pre-disposition toward CDing, and I believe there is, then it would have to be a result of brain chemistry. The endocrinic system, of the body is incredibly complex, and by example that very system is what regulates how tall someone would grow. The pituitary gland produces the growth hormone, and some point it stops producing it...why? Well if it didn't, we would keep growing, so why does it stop sooner in some than others? Our sex hormones are part of this same system, so why are some humans awash with sex hormones and other are not? It seems that brain sex gets set while a child is still in the womb, and then so much changes at puberity. It all seems to boil down to a pinch of this hormone and a nosh of that hormone, that makes us who we are. Our DNA is seems to be the genetic code by which the endocrinic system takes its "orders" from. Our DNA is the proverbial milk shake of our parents DNA, and why that our particular DNA chain forms noone seems to know, other than it being from the seed and egg providers. So, what came from your mothers, or fathers side of the family...eye color, height, hair color, complexion, habits, taste in clothes.... If we could control the endocrinic system at the point of conception onward, we could then create; a 6"8" basketball player, an athletic ballet dancer, or a great figure skater, regardless of physical sex. As long as there are different or unusual people in the world, someone will attempt to understand why they are different. Seeing as we are the different ones, it only stands to reason that we want to understand why. I can't explain the why, but it is easier living with myself as I just accepted that I a different, and that is ok.

Having three older sisters - no brothers I was always dragged along shopping - loved all the silky things they got and used to try them on when I could. I don't know of any others in my family that cd - my sisters told me resently that before I was born they wanted another baby sister but was never made to feel that way - hereditary?, do genetics play a part? I think so at least to some degree but There is nothing we can do, it's all about acceptance wherever it came from.....................Debra

I like Debra just have 4 older sisters. When i was young i adored their 60's style dresses and lingerie.
I had a slimmer build and enjoyed playing with girls as much or more than boys.
Have always had a fondness for feminine lingerie and clothes. Might be due to me being an early birth, apparently there is some influence in the last month(s)
In the meantime i am on ebay looking for flirty skirts... Ciao. Kerrie

I suspect it is genetic to a certain extent ... though the social taboo and shame of it all makes it difficult to trace it down family lines.

I don't think we're necessarily born with physical features that reflect our innermost self image. In fact that's one of our defining characteristics :-)

Mentally, however ... I think we fit neatly with most other natural phenomena. Like leaves, or the formation of clouds, or bacterial colonies, the shape of our minds is the limit of semi-randomly seeded naturally recurring patterns. I got this notion in college while working through excerpts of Wolfram's "A New Kind of Science" (which is linguistically dense, but mind blowing).

What I mean by this is that I believe we are all born with the potential for almost everything ... from being a musical prodigy to being another Einstein, to being straight, CD, or any point on the spectrum. That is our raw potential; our "hardware" if you will ... but the development of our conscious mind (our software) is a continually evolving semi-random chain of associations. In that way, our minds are like gardens, and certain seeds take root and blossom, and others don't. I absolutely believe that genetics plays a part in which modalities are most likely to develop and blossom.

"how trans we are" (if you'll pardon the gross oversimplification), I think, is a function of genetics in that way (if that makes sense).

I strongly believe that we are born with whatever factors make up our sexual preferences, our desires/needs to CD, as well as other traits. The birth order theory has been around for a while but, like many other theories re: "Why?" it does not provide any real answers. In my case, I am the first born. My younger brother had absolutely no interest in CDing. I know of many other CDs who are the eldest or are only children.

There are many boys who appear to be effiminate that never CD and are not gay. There are many boys/men who appear ultra "macho" but are gay or CDs. The "Why" is still an unsolved mystery.

My personal belief is that having GID is similar to being left-handed. There is a genetic predisposition, and the fact that scientists can't identify the specific gene that causes it does not mean it doesn't exist. We nurture children to write with their right hand, but some just don't work that way. Doesn't make it right or wrong, just different.

I don't think anyone knows whether it is genetic or not but I do believe that it is definitely learned behavior. Most of us are curious animals - I know I am and one day just out of curiosity, I picked up a pair of my sister's nylon panties and I put them on. This was during my early teen years and there was instant arousal. Well, we all know what happened after that. I did not need to put on panties to become aroused, it was simply that it seemed to intensify it because the act was of course taboo. Again, repeated wearing panties and then wearing panties became associated with pleasure. More curiosity led to trying on a bra and a slip and other items and again, with more dressing came more reward. Fast forward a good many years and while at some level, arousal or excitement is still there when I dress, so is there just a comfortable feeling of enjoyment. So, whether it is genetic or not - who knows? But I definitely have learned to enjoy it.

Im not aware of any male in my immediate family or extended family that is a cd or a ts. I have two sons both are ALL male that leaves me, so I dont think genetics has any effect.

There is most likely a tremendous number of us who, because of the inner feelings of shame or embarrasment about wanting to behave feminine in any way, want to believe that it's not our fault, that nature or someone else is responsible for our crossdressing. Add to that, we are men; we're supposed to be 'strong' enough to hold back the urge to do this, so 'giving way' to the desire to crossdress isn't masculine, so we want to distance ourselves from that, too. So, people simply like to believe that it's genetic. I look at it like I look at religion; if it makes someone feel good to believe it, then go ahead. Just don't assign those ideas to me.

It is definitely genetic. Many of us start feeling this way since childhood.

Kinda off and on into genealogy and haven't found any other people like myself in my tree thus far. On the other hand, there is a high likelihood I was exposed to DES (diethylstilbestrol) in-vitro and, back in 2005, there was a study possibly linking such expose to gender identity issues (among other things).

Cross dressing by it's definition, no. The reason behind the desire to do it I think is very possible for a lot of CD's. I have the reasons why I was drawn to it figured out pretty good but, I was also a twin but my mother miscarried the other fetus 4 months into the pregnancy. I was also 2 months premature. I have often thought there could be a link in there somewhere as my brain didn't grow to to what it should have while inside my mother. The last 2 months of development were outside of the womb. Who knows what kinds of effects that can have on chromosomes and such.

Isn't it scientifically fact that all fetus start out 'female' and the male elements develop throughout the term of a pregnancy? I thought I heard or read that somewhere.

Of course there is no scientific data to suggest that, none that I am aware of but it's an interesting theory for sure.

According to the many doctors that I have talked to over the years the correct answer to the question asked in this thread is NO!! Crossdressing is what people do to satisfy themselves. You can think that it is genetic, but it really is not. Yes there are people who are born bi-sexual, but they are very,very rare!! The vast majority of MTF crossdressers dress enfemme because they want to, not because their bodies tell them to!! I have been crossdressing for over 60 years, and I do it simply because I like to. If my children, or my dear girlfriend, ever told me to stop, I would!!

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Originally Posted by Soriya

Cross dressing by it's definition, no. The reason behind the desire to do it I think is very possible for a lot of CD's. I have the reasons why I was drawn to it figured out pretty good but, I was also a twin but my mother miscarried the other fetus 4 months into the pregnancy. I was also 2 months premature. I have often thought there could be a link in there somewhere as my brain didn't grow to to what it should have while inside my mother. The last 2 months of development were outside of the womb. Who knows what kinds of effects that can have on chromosomes and suc

Isn't it scientifically fact that all fetus start out 'female' and the male elements develop throughout the term of a pregnancy? I thought I heard or read that somewhere.

Of course there is no scientific data to suggest that, none that I am aware of but it's an interesting theory for sure.

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I was born OCT 29 was was suppose to born Dec 17 (I weighted 3 pounds 8 oz) maybe I was not ready to leave the comfort of a woman. (maybe trying to get a womans comfort again) don't know

I was a preemie also, about 6 weeks. Back in 1948 this was.

Well, I developed into to it. I'm sort of a big guy. But Betty is who I really am.
Genetically destined for this? How can anyone tell?