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Familiality of Gender Identity Disorder in Non-Twin Siblings

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Abstract

Familial studies and reports of co-occurrence of gender identity disorder (GID) within a family may help to clarify the question of whether transsexualism is a familial phenomenon. In a sample of 995 consecutive transsexual probands (677 male-to-female [MF] and 318 female-to-male [FM]), we report 12 pairs of transsexual non-twin siblings (nine pairs of MF siblings, two pairs of MF-FM siblings, and one pair of FM siblings). The present study doubles the number of case reports of co-occurrence of transsexualism in non-twin siblings available in the literature. According to our data, the probability that a sibling of a transsexual will also be transsexual was 4.48 times higher for siblings of MF than for siblings of FM transsexual probands, and 3.88 times higher for the brothers than for the sisters of transsexual probands. Moreover, the prevalence of transsexualism in siblings of transsexuals (1/211 siblings) was much higher than the range expected according to the prevalence data of transsexualism in Spain. The study suggests that siblings of transsexuals may have a higher risk of being transsexual than the general population, and that the risk is higher for brothers than sisters of transsexuals, and for siblings of MF than FM transsexuals. Nevertheless, the risk is low.

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Notes

  1. Data of other familial case reports from that population (two pairs of DZ twin siblings, eight pairs of first and second cousins, and three MF probands who have an uncle concordant for MF transsexualism) are available from the corresponding author upon request.

  2. Data on siblings of FM probands were not compared, since only one familial case has been described.

  3. Statistical comparison of two proportions was not performed because of the low prevalence data in the general population.

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to the patients and their families for their cooperation. The work of AG, EG, EP and SS is supported by grants SEJ2007-65686/PSIC, SAF2004-22551-E and PI-0254/2007 JA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unidad de Identidad de Género, Instituto Clínic de Neurociencias, Servicio de Psiquiatría, Hospital Clínic, Universidad de Barcelona, Villarroel 170, 08036, Barcelona, Spain

    Esther Gómez-Gil

  2. Unidad de Trastornos de Identidad de Género, Servicio de Endocrinología, Hospital Carlos Haya, Málaga, Spain

    Isabel Esteva & M. Cruz Almaraz

  3. Departamento de Psicobiología, Universidad de A Coruña, A Coruña, Spain

    Eduardo Pasaro

  4. Departamento de Psicobiología, UNED, Madrid, Spain

    Santiago Segovia & Antonio Guillamon

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  1. Esther Gómez-Gil
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  2. Isabel Esteva
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  3. M. Cruz Almaraz
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  4. Eduardo Pasaro
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  5. Santiago Segovia
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  6. Antonio Guillamon
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Correspondence to Esther Gómez-Gil.

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Gómez-Gil, E., Esteva, I., Almaraz, M.C. et al. Familiality of Gender Identity Disorder in Non-Twin Siblings. Arch Sex Behav 39, 546–552 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-009-9524-4

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