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Exposure to phthalate compromises brain function in adult vertebrates

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139 points PaulHoule | 1 comments | 06 Nov 24 21:00 UTC | HN request time: 0.212s | source
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zug_zug ◴[06 Nov 24 22:21 UTC] No.42070418[source]▶
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.
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sva_ ◴[07 Nov 24 00:51 UTC] No.42071975[source]▶
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.
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sapphicsnail ◴[07 Nov 24 01:21 UTC] No.42072225[source]▶
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.

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1. zug_zug ◴[07 Nov 24 22:24 UTC] No.42081775[source]▶
As somebody under that umbrella myself

> soy turning me trans or social media turning me trans I agree is absolutely mind-numbingly naive.

However, I feel like there's only so many options for where sexuality and gender-identity can come from -- and if we know there's no god doing it, and we know it's not entirely learned (because of case studies of surgeons who assigned a gender to babies with ambiguous genitals), the remainder must be from the environment... and it just so happens that almost all of the body's signaling around gender, puberty, and development is chemicals in one form or another.