A New Theory...

[Karin]

I've just been watching a TV show where authorities busted a shipment of dodgy toys that contravene all the safety rules of today. You know the sort of stuff thats in them... lead, cadmium and that type of poison lol. One special ingredient caught my eye tho? Phthalates. Apparently these things can and do affect our hormone levels in ways we don't yet fully understand.

This has me thinking back. Years ago when I was a child we had alsorts of stuff in our toys before it was outlawed. Remember playing with little balls of liquid mercury anyone? And getting screamed at whenever we put it in our mouths? haha

Where was I? Oh yes, the theory. I can't help but wonder if any contact with stuff like that, has at all affected me, or helped shape me into who I am today? I was never high in testosterone even before hrt, very low body hair etc etc. Is it possible that my T level was suppressed by eating my toys? And then, if it is, could that low T level be responsible for shaping my tastes and leanings as I grew up? (I liked pretty things instead of cars, sports or killing things)

I'm not complaining at all, but is it really possible that I'm Transexual because I ate my play-dough?? Hahaha that's soooo cool.

FTR. I'd do it again.....

[Anthony Simon]

One special ingredient caught my eye tho? Phthalates. Apparently these things can and do affect our hormone levels in ways we don't yet fully understand.

... is it really possible that I'm Transexual because I ate my play-dough?? Hahaha that's soooo cool.

Here's the wiki entry for phthalates:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phthalate

It suggests that they can mess about with male physical development. But my instinct is that the effect is at one remove from being transexual.

I was never high in testosterone even before hrt, very low body hair etc etc. Is it possible that my T level was suppressed by eating my toys? And then, if it is, could that low T level be responsible for shaping my tastes and leanings as I grew up? (I liked pretty things instead of cars, sports or killing things)

Whatever the reason[s] for it, you were in some respects - both physical and mental - a rather non-masculine man. Doesn't prove you were going to turn into a TS, but you weren't starting from nothing either.

For some reason the idea of you being TS because you ate your play-dough keeps morphing into your play-dough eating something or other.

[Karin]

Here's the wiki entry for phthalates:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phthalate

It suggests that they can mess about with male physical development. But my instinct is that the effect is at one remove from being transexual

That link led me to a pic with something that looked like a spaceship
It did however also say this...

Quote...
"... suggest that prenatal exposure to antiandrogenic phthalates may be associated with less male-typical play behaviour in boys. ... [and] ... suggest that these ubiquitous environmental chemicals have the potential to alter androgen-responsive brain development in humans."

Precisely what I meant. Antiandrogen is the stuff.

I use the Spiro brand of antiandrogen to block my receptors, and bring my natural production of testosterone to a halt. If my modelling clay (which I also used to eat hahaha) contained this stuff, then maybe this could be connected to the suppression of masculinity both physically and mentally. It does this very potently in adulthood so perhaps the doses hitting a minor could have a monumental effect?

From there, the male instinct goes in a box and its oh so easy to like pretties and so on...


Still just a theory I know, but honestly. I really did eat a lot of playdough, plastercine and modelling clay. I did swallow lead a few times haha and I'd also chew alsorts of plastics too. We need a Guinea pig I think. Anyone gonna volunteer to eat a strip every day and see if their libido does a runner?? hahaha

Disclaimer. You prolly shouldn't do that for safety reasons but if you do, the red ones tasted best back then

[Martina Hall]

There's no telling what the thousands of toxins in our environment are doing to us. A friend has MS. Another has Crohn"s disease. Nothing has been found to explain the existence of these "diseases", as far as bacteria, viruses, or fungi. So what else is there? Toxins!
Also on my suspect list: Autism, ALS, low birth weight, ( an increasing problem ), and other "mystery diseases".

Doubt that the corporate powers that be would tell us if they found the cause, 'cause their crap is IT.
BTW, don't consume lead or mercury.

[DonnaT]

Didn't seem to affect my brothers any, gender wise, so I doubt it has that type of affect.

[Carol Ann]

Well I don't know, who knows what the Army fed me for 13 years but going on 75 I am still healthy as a horse

[SilverLady(SO)]

:Ahem:

Speaking as a GG, who probably ate PlayDoh as a child (although I have no recollection of it, but I do of 'mud pies' ) . . . I did not turn out to be FTM, or even L, nor did any of my sisters.

Sorry, Karin, but I think you're just grasping at straws trying to make a causal relationship where there is none; if your theory were true, then most of modern society would be CD or TG, and that's not the case.


If one was to believe the Phthalate connection, how would one explain all the FTM and MTF CDs, or TGs, from the beginning of time??


Virginia and I will always believe that we are born this way (GLBT or straight) . . . we don't question it, but we do make the most of it!!





- SL

[Karin]

Oh dear

*hides ten new boxes of plastercine and stops chewing.

Hahaha. I did say its just a theory!. I'd like to go with the born this way thing too, but if that was the case for me, then how come I didn't struggle with it for the first half of my life? Although yeah. I did dabble. On with the quest then haha.....

[SilverLady(SO)]

*hands Karin a garbage can for all that plastercine, making sure she throws it all away.


Well, not everyone struggles with it while growing up, many don't realize their CD/TG tendencies until later in adulthood.


Virginia had no idea until she was in her mid-50s, and with the help of everyone here she was able to recall little incidents over the years (childhood, etc.) that she had suppressed/repressed . . . after all, she was educated in military academies and then went on to college and the Navy, playing football in both and then becoming a Naval Aviator . . . being a 'macho male' was expected.


- SL

[Ralitsa]

pthalates are just one of a myriad of endocrine disruptors. Actually, we don't even have a comprehensive list of what all the endocrine disruptors are, but soybean oil, green beans, red clover and moldy wheat are high on the list. And yes, prenatal exposure can have some effect, but it's nearly impossible to isolate one specific item out of the gazillion of things that affect a fetus.
But a really interesting phenomenon is that there is a high enough level of various endocrine disruptors in sewage that it stimulates many amphibians to switch their gender. Amphibians have that ability anyway although normally they do it when there is an imbalance between the two sexes.
But before everyone goes off half cocked, species have naturally been waging war against each other using these chemicals since forever. A curious story is the role of gossypol and the boll wevil, and how some Chinese villages nearly went extinct.

[Karin]

. But a really interesting phenomenon is that there is a high enough level of various endocrine disruptors in sewage that it stimulates many amphibians to switch their gender.

Really?? Not a lot of people know this.... heehee
Years ago I was the commissioning engineer on a few dirty water treatment plants in the south of England. (Yes. Sewage treatment). I sorta poked my eye and scratched it up pretty badly and ended up in hospital cos I had..Ughh sewage in it for about ten hours.

Okay, okay. It doesn't explain me dabbling before that I agree, but can I blame the poop farm for the ferocity of it now? Pleeeeease? Pretty please?!?

[Leeza]

Sorry Karin, I don't think so.

I will send you some bows though and hope they will help.

[Paulette]

A favorite uncle would bring me silver dimes and small vials of mercury to play with. This was in the mid to late '40s. I've long suspected that this was associated with my more stark crazy periods, but who knows?

[Sarah Ann]

I don't buy it in my own case, but it might explain a lot about Gumby

Come to think of it, maybe it wasn't the Play-Doh, Karin. Did you ever play with Barbies? She's obviously loaded with estrogens to start with...............

[Rikki]

I had a vial of mercury that I played with as a kid. Loved my chemistry set. Who knows!!

Let's do the research.

Rikki