Research 

Atypical Gender Development

The paper, Atypical Gender Development (PDF, 276KB), was published in the International Journal of Transgenderism in 2006, based on the work of a group funded by the Kings Fund. The paper is under limited copyright to The Haworth Press Inc, Binghamton, New York, the Publisher of the Journal. It may be used only by the signatories for oral presentation, and on their university or clinical websites. It may not be used for profit or systematic third party sales or dissemination, by which is meant any interlibrary loan or document delivery systems. Others may not use the paper except for personal or professional purposes.

The group was chaired by Professor Milton Diamond, and included trans people:

  • general practitioners
  • endocrinologists
  • specialist clinical psychologists
  • SRS surgeons (MtF & FtM)
  • psychiatrists (paediatric and adult)
  • a gynaecologist/obstetrician
  • a neuro-anatomist
  • the chair of the Parliamentary Forum on Gender Identity.

These specialists are from the UK, The Netherlands, Belgium, Japan and the USA.

Response to Critiques

Three critiques of this paper are published together with it, Response to the Critiques of Atypical Gender Development A Review (PDF, 204KB). GIRES acceded to the editors demand to waive typical publication procedures, so that the original review, the Journal’s reviewers’ comments on it, and this response should be published simultaneously. The numbering of the paragraphs in this response is not related to that in the original article.

Earlier Work

In 2003, Gires ran a small symposium in London, assisted by the BCC Trans group (founded in 1993, to promote better care for trans people) with additional funding from The King’s Fund (a prestigious UK charity providing funds for medical and scientific work).

The symposium, all of whose members had specialist knowledge of gender dysphoria, including several trans people, produced a comprehensive review of what was then known in the scientific field about atypical development.

Further Studies

Since the publication of this paper in the International Journal of Transgenderism in 2006, a number of further studies, relevant to gender identity development, have been conducted. This synopsis, Biological Correlations in the Development of Diverse Gender Identities A Synopsis (PDF, 250KB), includes references to the most noteworthy of these studies available up to 2014 and makes no claims to be comprehensive.