14 DAY TRIAL // It was just a few days ago that Vanity Fair cordially introduced us to Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as Bruce Jenner, and the transgender community got way more media attention than ever before.
Since, at the end of the day, it was advances in the field science and especially biology that made Bruce's transformation into Caitlyn possible, folks at the American Chemical Society have produced a video explaining how gender transition works.
The video, available in full below, focuses on the hormones estrogen and testosterone, and what role they play in the female and male body, respectively. In a nutshell, they are the ones that make girls look like girls and boys look like, well, boys.
Although the bodies of women and men produce both estrogen and testosterone, females have more of the former and males more of the latter. Toy with this balance and their appearance will change.
Plainly put, gender transition involves revving up testosterone levels in women and estrogen levels in men. As a result of these hormonal changes, the bodies of women begin to resemble those of men. Vice versa, men start to look more like women.
Since gender transition basically means forcing the body into going through a second puberty, experts urge that those thinking about altering their bodies to such an extent only do it under medical supervision.
