Exposure to phthalate compromises brain function in adult vertebrates

Obviously this is baseless speculation, but I sure do wonder if various psychological conditions that are so diverse and hard to pin down (i.e. 3 out of these 9 symptoms around attention, social behavior, or impulse control) are ultimately just going to be proven to be purely biological. And since genetics can only explain less than half of it, it sure seems that something messing with chemical signaling would be a reasonable explanation for the rest.

I've been speculating on industrial pollutants that act as endocrine disruptors for years now, and every so often some evidence emerges. People understandably don't like such mundane explanations when they've built large parts of their identity around the issues it may have caused them though.

You're idea is hardly novel. I've had plenty of people tell me this or that chemical caused me to be trans. I've also spent plenty of time researching possible biological causes of transness. I'm personally open to the idea that maybe there's a biological cause but I haven't found a convincing explanation yet.

The problem is that when I have conversations with people about soy turning me trans or social media turning me trans they are often trying to use that as a way to deny me any agency over my own life.

Trans people have been around ages, same as gays and all that. Yet no gay gene discovered.

We know that a living being is just not only DNA, but also its environment; now on top of that add all the big complexity of human social behaviour and gender into it. I doubt they will find a "cause" to trans-ness.

I’m not saying there is evidence that it has the same root cause, or even that there are more trans people now than before (I haven’t seen the numbers), but kids are hitting puberty 2+ years earlier now, probably because of endocrine disruptors.

As a thought experiment, it seems hard to intentionally design a drug that changes what year puberty onset starts at without having some impact on LGBTQ+ prevalence.