Sex Change Hormonal Treatments Alter Brain Chemistry
Saturday, October 10, 2015 - 12:10
in Health & Medicine
Hormonal treatments administered as part of the procedures for sex reassignment have well-known and well-documented effects on the secondary sexual characteristics of the adult body, shifting a recipient's physical appearance to that of the opposite sex. New research published in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry indicates that these hormonal treatments also alter brain chemistry. Researchers at the Medical University of Vienna, led by senior authors Dr. Siegfried Kasper and Dr. Rupert Lanzenberger, show that administration of the male hormone testosterone in female-to-male transsexuals raises brain levels of SERT, the protein that transports the chemical messenger serotonin into nerve cells. read more