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Original poster

Pollutants in our food system - is this a factor in the rise of incidence of people being transgender?

24 replies

ArnoldBee · 10/12/2019 23:11

So the transgender issue is complicated and I am not professing to have any knowledge.
I was just pondering that a few years ago we were told there were higher than expected levels of oestrogen in our rivers and wondered if there was any causal effect or am I talking a load of rubbish?

OP posts:

FelixFelicis6 · 10/12/2019 23:12

I think the latter!!

NigellaAwesome · 10/12/2019 23:16

I've wondered this too. I knew a woman who was a Professor or something - possibly environmental studies? I remember 20 years ago her telling me about the feminisation of the environment as a result of high levels of oestrogen being excreted into the environment as a result of the pill. It affected fish and lots of other creatures.

I've also wondered if other environmental factors such as exposure to plastics may be at play, although I do also think there may be a level of social contagion.

5zeds · 10/12/2019 23:18

How does it account for transmen? (Ie women who want to live as men)

Elieza · 10/12/2019 23:20

I’ve heard that too about oestrogen but I hadn’t thought that it could be related to transgender issues? Ive heard that babies genitals in hot plastic nappies could lead to infertility and oestrogen content in food choices and the contraceptive pill could have something to do with water pollutants. Unfortunately I am not a scientist so I have no idea if the truth of these rumours.

Hirsutefirs · 10/12/2019 23:22

No, it’s just a load of shit.

NigellaAwesome · 10/12/2019 23:26

This is an interesting article from the Grundian from 2004.

It seems to support my friend's theory.

Original poster

ArnoldBee · 10/12/2019 23:27

There is testosterone that you can buy ie. Athletes - do they dispose of any unwanted product in our water systems?
So just my musing you have a woman that's pregnant with a boy. Baby is exposed to oestrogen in the environment but it's not going to turn the child into a girl however the exposure changes that child and how it wants to Express themselves?

OP posts:

FelicityBeedle · 10/12/2019 23:28

Funny isn’t it, as soon as ‘respectable’ people want to squash other people’s rights, they protest that its an illness of sorts

Hirsutefirs · 10/12/2019 23:29

All conjecture.

Hirsutefirs · 10/12/2019 23:30

I mean Arnold’s last post was conjecture.

Hirsutefirs · 10/12/2019 23:31

Mumsnet works like 1990s Internet. It’s a damned drag.

Original poster

ArnoldBee · 10/12/2019 23:34

It's my musings which I wondered if there was any scientific fact. I'm exposed to progesterone as I take the mini pill and I have had personality changes as well as changes in how I wish to Express myself.

OP posts:

minipie · 10/12/2019 23:38

Far more likely that the rise in transgenderism is linked to the increasingly polarised stereotypes that men and women and boys and girls are supposed to conform to. Have you looked at children’s toys and clothes recently? Or TV and movie characters? There is a massive pink blue divide that just didn’t exist 20/30 years ago.

And because popular culture is so worshipped these days, people who don’t conform to the stereotype start to question their own sex, rather than questioning the stereotype.

I don’t think hormone levels in foetuses have changed. Society has.

quickkimchi · 10/12/2019 23:40

It seems that the 'gender bending' (god help me) effect described in that article involves animals having a lower sex drive, being unable to reproduce and males growing female reproductive tissues/organs. There are physical changes.

As far as I'm aware, we're not seeing physical feminisation in male humans, we're seeing increasing numbers of young men and suddenly many more young women expressing a desire to be the opposite sex. Some of them will go on to take hormones to provoke physical changes, presumably because they don't naturally have bodies that resemble the opposite sex.

Is there any reason to believe transpeople are physically different (ie their reproductive organs are developing differently) and/or can't reproduce? Anecdotally it seems like a lot of transwomen have kids - ? And like sex - ?

BlueGingerale · 10/12/2019 23:44

I think it most certainly is due to the environment.

Oestrogen as you mentioned but also pesticides like round up and aluminium in vaccines all change us fundamentally.

The key thing here is ‘rise’. What else has been rising at the same rate as transgender people?

And the age of the transgender people also point to it coming from environmental factors.

RhinoskinhaveI · 10/12/2019 23:45

Hmmm very difficult to say, things like this very complex I think, you'd think that pollutants would have an effect on health in general they wouldn't you?

BlueGingerale · 10/12/2019 23:47

The other thing that suggest pollutants is the huge number of transgender people who also have ASD. People with ASD have been proven (from autopsies of their brain) to have incredibly high levels of aluminium.

minipie · 11/12/2019 00:01

Or is it possible that the huge number of transgender people with ASD is not because there is a common cause behind both (like pollutants) but because having ASD makes a person more likely to look for a reason why they don’t feel they fit, ideally a “fixable” reason?

minipie · 11/12/2019 00:01

The key thing here is ‘rise’. What else has been rising at the same rate as transgender people?

Lots of things. Use of social media, for example.

TheNameGames · 11/12/2019 00:10

I’d think porn was more of a factor than pollutants, myself.

SquareSausages · 11/12/2019 00:15

This is some Alex Jones type shit.

wafflyversatile · 11/12/2019 00:22

If you'd been around you probably would have thought there was an increase in gay people when that became legal. The issues around trans rights is hot right now. The number of transgender people probably hasnt changed, they've become more visible.

The pink blue thing is newish but when I was a child 40 years ago trucks and planes and Lego and doctor outfits etc were predominantly boys toys and dolls and cookers and nurse outfits were girls toys. We were very much expected to conform to stereotypes. Now girls can have Lego in pink and cookers come in grey and blue for boys.

SquareSausages · 11/12/2019 00:24

m.youtube.com/watch?v=ldfGaoJIPDs

Reminds me of this.

mindutopia · 11/12/2019 08:51

Don’t be ridiculous. There have always been trans people. It just didn’t have a name for everyone to get their panties in a twist about, and frankly in previous generations, they kept quiet for fear of being killed or were just outright murdered. Also this oestrogen in the water theory doesn’t explain trans men (surely there would be less trans men if this was the case, and it just isn’t).

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