Transvestia

and gender, in which we are particularly interested, we fortunately have means to perform experiments and draw conclusions. We not only have animals on which to experiment, but we have specific anatomical struc- tures, physiological processes, biochemical substan- ces and psychological behaviours which we can utilize in setting up experiments and from which we can draw some interesting conclusions. There have been a number of very fascinating experiments performed on rats and currently being attempted on monkeys and other animals in the field of sex development and reproductive behaviour that shed far more light on the level at which "NATURE" is involved in this pro- blem than those cited by Sheila. Let me outline them for you.

It has been found that if one operates on fetal rats around the 18th day of development and removes the gonads (a general term for sex-cell-producing- structures which includes both ovary and testis) some very significant things result. If the animal was a genetic female destined to develop into a full functional female, it will develop all the female genital structures except the ovaries which were removed. When it grows to maturity it will not ex- hibit any typically female reproductive patterns. It cannot come into heat, of course, as it has no ovaries, but it will not submit to a male in the characteristic way nor behave in other female ways toward a male. It will however, exhibit certain female "nurturing" responses toward baby mice-- mothering responses.

Now if another genetic female rat treated the same way has estrogen (female hormone) administered to it when mature it will behave reproductively en- tirely like an ordinary female. Moreover if it has an ovary transplanted into it and is fortified with necessary amounts of estrogen it will then ovulate. If surgeons were skillful enough to attach the ovary in such a way that the egg found its way into the uterus such a fertilized "repaired" female would

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