The Riddle of Gender - Deborah Rudacille [169]
“On its face, the concept that EDCs might cause transsexualism sounds a bit lunatic fringe,” he says. “But if you accept that there is or could be a physiological basis for gender identity, and if you believe that prenatal exposure to EDCs can affect neurological development, the concept begins to seem credible.” Whether it can ever be conclusively established is another matter, he says.
A study published by epidemiologist and biostatistician Shanna Swan in 2005 points to the kind of methodology that may ultimately convince skeptics. Swan found that anogenital distance—the distance between the rectum and the base of the penis—was shorter in baby boys whose mothers’ urine revealed elevated concentrations of phthal-ate metabolites. This evidence of “phthalate syndrome” previously observed in animal models provides compelling evidence that exposure to a class of chemicals used in a wide variety of consumer goods (soft plastics and cosmetics) is having a measurable effect on the reproductive anatomy of baby boys. Many are calling this a “landmark study” says Hood, pointing out that even Steven Safe, a noted critic of EDC fearmongering, has called it an important piece of work and a model for future epidemiological research on the human health effects ofEDCs.
It will certainly be more difficult to come up with that kind of overwhelmingly convincing evidence when it comes to psychological effects. Still, even in this murkier area, progress has been made. For example, in 2005, Scott Kerlin finally began to make some headway in his herculean efforts to bring the health issues of DES sons to the attention of researchers. After sharing his results with EDC researcher John McLachlan, Kerlin was invited to present his paper, “The Presence of Gender Dysphoria, Transsexualism, and Differentiation in Males Prenatally Exposed to Diethyl-stilbestrol: Initial Evidence from a 5-Year Study,” at the annuale. Hormone conference of endocrine disruption research in October.
This was Kerlin’s first experience at presenting his research to a scientific audience; I asked about the reaction to his presentation. “People were shocked,” he says. “Some audience members—including Shanna Swan—came up to me after the presentation and said, literally, ‘I’m shocked.’” Kerlin’s talk focused on the invisible harm of DES—things not easy to measure and difficult for people to grasp like gender dysphoria and major depressive disorders. “I basically said, I can’t prove it, but I also can’t discount the information that people have shared with me,’” he says. Contra his fears, the researchers in the audience “were not dismissive of my findings,” Kerlin says. Indeed, in his summary at the close of the conference, McLachlan referred to the work being done by Kerlin and some of the other presenters on the human health effects panel as “guerrilla epidemiology” and said that it was essential given the paucity of formal studies thus far.
Kerlin is pleased that he is finally able to call attention not only to the hot-button issue of gender variance, but also to broader psychological issues of DES sons. “I’ve documented more cases of major depressive disorders than any condition other than gender variance among members of the network,” he says, “but the whole psychiatric realm has been kept off the radar screen. All of the focus has been on measurable physical conditions. What is missing is long-term research on subtle effects, psychological health, and neurodevelopmental issues. My view is that males were disproportionately affected in ways that are relatively invisible, whereas