For example, the fact that beard growth is difficult and painful to reverse through electrolysis is often put forward as proof of testosterone’s superior “staying power”, but no one ever raises the fact that the widened hips brought about by estrogenic puberty are impossible to erase. These ideas happen to neatly dovetail with prevailing sexist notions that femininity is “weak” and masculinity is “strong”, and the projection of these ideas onto the biochemical processes that people feel correlate with gender expression is pretty transparent, and leaves a lot to be desired on a scientific level. The mythology goes like this: the effects of estrogen are “easy to erase”, which the effects of testosterone are more “resilient”. I want to stress the universal nature of estrogen’s power because, in the context of hormonal transition, pernicious narratives about estrogen’s “weakness” play a particularly intense role in the framing of transition as a medical process. Estrogen strengthens the lining of vaginal and uterine walls, and also the walls of people’s urethras. It is also vital to the clotting process, which is initiated when a person is injured and bleeding, as well as to the cycle bone formation, repair and growth. It regulates breast milk production in people who are nursing babies. Estrogen regulates menstruation in people with uteruses, along with progesterone. It is true that estrogen creates feminine secondary sex characteristics, IE breast growth, pubic and armpit hair growth, and hip widening. Estrogen has diverse effects throughout all kinds of bodies, many of which are vital to the health and wellbeing of everyone. These beliefs are not accurate appraisals of human physiology, however. ![]() ![]() Over centuries of medical research characterized by sexism, it has been cast as a hormone that governs cycles solely in the bodies of cisgender women, and also as a chemical that is “less strong” than testosterone. Estrogen is a complex hormone with myriad effects on many systems throughout the body.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |