Are these people mentally ill?

Question

I don't mean to offend anyone but.....

The people that feel they are the opposite gender than they really are and want to change their gender, are they mentally ill?

The parents that have a baby and they are not sure what gender they are and the doctors can't tell either(Can you explain that to me how that can be a possibility?? I mean everyone is born with a gender!). Are they mentally ill?

Answer 1

I don't think they are mentally ill. Not everyone is born with a gender, or a clear cut male or female gender. It is a problem with biology, not psychology, but may have psychological effects on the person when they have to learn how to deal with the issue they have.

Answer 2

Hello..........Sometimes children are born having both female and male genitalia. I am sure that I don't know why this happens, but at birth, the child's parents are asked to decide which sex they would like to keep. Physically, the best choice is determined by which of the sexual organs are more develop and "normal" looking. Sadly, it won't be until later in the child's life, when hormonal changes become a factor in their development, both emotionally and physically, will they know whether or not the right decision had been made. If the child was meant to be a boy, facial and chest hair will develop,and if meant to be a girl, breasts will develop. I can only imagine what these people have to deal with, if their parents chose the wrong sex for them. How difficult would it be..a penis and breasts, or a vagina and a beard. It is no wonder some people feel the need to change their gender. More often than not, if the baby has deformities of it's genitalia, the choice will be made to surgically remove the obviously defective parts, usually the penis and testes, and the parents will be told to raise the child as a girl. However the genetics were decided months before, in the womb. Hormone replacement therapies are necessary, but usually do not stop entirely the feeling that something is "different" in the way the person sees themselves, or their place in society. It is not a mental disorder, but rather, a matter of genetics.

Answer 3

Various studies have shown that people who identify as the other gender than their biological one show neuroanatomical features of the gender they identify as, rather than the one they were born as. What that means is there are actually measurable differences in the brains of men and women, and people who are born a boy but feel like a girl are actually born with girl brains, and vice versa. Those neurological differences begin to develop prenatally, and are already detectable at birth. The 'mismatch' of neurology with genetalia may be the result of genetic factors, environmental factors in the mother's womb (how much of various hormones the fetus was exposed to) or a combination of both. Transgender people will often end up with depression or other mental health issues as a result of social pressure to be 'normal,' or because they don't feel that they fit in the role that society assigns them based on their anatomy, but that's not inherent to the gender issue, it's just a result of societies opinion of that issue. Transgender people don't have a mental illness that causes them to want to change genders, they just had the bad luck to be born with genetalia that don't match their neurology.

As for people being born with ambiguous gender, that's definitely is possible, and is a separate issue from being transgender. There are various developmental defects that can cause a baby to be born with ambigous genetalia. If they lack certain hormones, they may be genetically one gender or the other but not develop the correct reproductive structures. For instance, they could end up with male testicals inside their bodies, but female external genetalia, if they're lacking a particular hormone that signals the gender-neutral genetalia in early fetal development to become male rather than famale. That's called pseudohermaphraditism (note that in psychology that term is considered politically incorrect, but in biology it's the right term).

In true hermaphraditism, the person doesn't actually have a true genetic gender either. Sometimes, two eggs get fertalize, but instead of developing into fraternal twins, they get stuck together and make only one baby, with genetic material from both eggs. If the eggs were of opposite genetic genders (i.e. one had an X chromosome and one had a Y chromosome), you can end up with a fetus in which one gonade is genetically male and one is female (you can also end up where one or both gonads is a mix of male and female tissue, which I think is more common than one of each). That fetus will typically produce some parts of the male reproductive system, and some parts of the female one. So you end up with an infact that is not only is anatomically both, but genetically both as well.

Answer 4

no they arnt ill, they are just gender mixed
eg: a male, he has all the male parts, he looks like a male, and his appearence is male.
but he my have been born with too much estrogen, and that effects the brain, and his thoughts, feelings, are female, though he looks male.
same with a female, to much testosreone (mind my spelling)
she feels more male then female, though she has everything that a female has.

and hun to be honest, we all in the embryo, are females, why do men have nipples,, think about it., during that time they form into a male due to y cromosomes, but if there is x in the genetic groth, then yes he is bound to have estrogen, thats why some males take testosertone pills aka steroids..
same with female if she y in her groth, then she has to much testosterone, thats also another reason why some girls go on birth control. its not always to prevent pregnancy, and calm your periods, its also used for this method

i hope this answers your question
ok hun

good luck

Answer 5

No the people that have both genders are not mentally ill. it is just a birth defect.

Answer 6

No, they are not mentally ill. They just feel like they are born in the wrong body that's all.

Answer 7

"No they are not mentally ill, they just feel like they are in the wrong body, thats all"

What? You don't think someone has a mental problem when they dont believe they are in the right BODY????

Answer 8

to answer the second question, some times a girl can be born with male reproductive equipment and vise-versa. no they are not mentally ill. it can happen to any one, but luckily it only happens like one in, say, ten thousand.

Answer 9

its a bio defect..their brains are completely normal (true to the best of my knowledge)

Answer 10

i feel everyone is off a little.... if not we wouldn't be so fascinated by others and their problems