Tuesday, December 23, 2008

PART NINE - Conclusion

As you can see based on the very basic hypothesis presented, how intersex children are created is rather simple, and the possible solution could be even more common sense than one could imagine.

However, when you think about the issues that seem to cause the most confusion in our world, in our lives and about our bodies, the answer always seems to be the most logical, most common sense approach. It’s just that many times in our minds, we ‘need’ things to be much more complicated, with solutions that are out of our reach or our own control where we need to hire someone or pay a service for a ‘valid’ solution.

All this possible solution takes is your time, desire and love for your spouse and your unborn child. And all it asks is that the woman focuses on reducing her stress level, pamper herself, cherish her pregnancy and be loved. All that’s asked of the father is to focus on creating a more balanced and secure home life, pamper the mother of his child, cherish her and the unborn child, and show love for both of them.

Compassion And Understanding
At this point you should have a much better understanding about why males are born more feminine, some women are born more masculine, and why the choice to have homosexual sex, or choose to be gay, is not really much of a choice after all.

Just as any person born with a difference, or is different than you are, or what’s considered the norm, as a potential parent it may be time to try and have a bit more compassion for someone else’s child. Knowing what you know now, their condition may be actually based on the actions of his/her mother and father, and of no choice of his or her own.

Whether they give themselves the label of homosexual or gay, the only difference is that they may be born between genders, or with little or no desire to procreate with the opposite gender. So it’s important to really understand that these boys, girls, men, women had no part in how their hypothalamus was developed, and the impact it has and will have on their lives.

Right now you have been empowered and may now hold more information about their born condition than they have been able to obtain, or allow themselves to know. So while you focus on not creating your own Intersex child, have some compassion for those individuals who were already born intersex.

PART EIGHT - A Father's Role

Common sense tells us that the father has a direct and definite role in the mental condition of the mother during this critical first trimester or first three months of pregnancy. He can either help create a situation of stress and fear in the life of the mother of his unborn child, or he could help make her feel comfortable, secure and loved as the mother of his child should be.

His ability to help her remain calm, secure and feel loved and cherished during the first trimester is his part in an effort to help pamper the mother and help create a healthy child.

Below are a few things the father can do to help the mother during this critical period:

1. Learn all he can about the Intersex condition so he understands the importance of his role during this critical period.

2. Communicate with his girlfriend or spouse about the pregnancy, how it’s coming along, ASK what he can do to help her feel pampered and loved.

3. Take on more responsibility around the home and create less work for her.

4. Help any current children or family members get involved in helping the expectant mother.

5. Show your support by going to the scheduled doctor’s appointments with the expectant mother.

6. Pamper her with small gifts and surprises just for her to show she is loved.

7. If you don’t already do so, hug her every day or multiple times a day when you see her. Your loving energy is what helps keep her calm and balanced.

8. Provide an atmosphere of security and protection and remove as much stress from her life as possible.

9. Increase your level of intimacy. The more simple intimacy between the mother and father, the more balanced the mother will be, and sexually healthier the child will be.

10. Schedule more quiet time with you and the expectant mother to relax and to maintain open communication.

11. Understand that this time period is all about the mother and the development of your male child. Make this her special time.

12. Make her your #1 Priority. Make sure she knows by your actions and words, that she and your unborn child are your #1 priority.

13. Avoid Conflict situations. If you have been in a relationship/marriage for any time at all, you already know the ‘buttons’ to push that throw her off balance. As she knows yours. The focus is to end the competition or battle for who’s right or wrong, and find a common ground which will be the foundation your unborn child will be built on.

As the father, you must understand that the healthy sexual development of the male or female child depends on the balanced loving relationship between you and the mother of your child. More than ever, this is where the union and team effort will be important in creating a healthy and sexually balanced child.

The positive result from this three month process is that many couples may develop even more respectful, close and loving relationships because they have more than just themselves as a reason to truly show their love for each other.

PART SEVEN - Steps A Women Can Take

Below are a few simple, common sense and rewarding steps a mother can take to improver her own health and well being, along with creating a more balanced environment for the healthy sexual development of her unborn child:

1. Learn to Meditate
Meditation does so much for peace of mind, spirit and the physical body. Meditation is very much like being able to put on the breaks during your daily life. Once you learn to meditate for 5 to 20 minutes and practice on a daily basis, you will be able to calm your world whenever you desire, to bring peace and balance into your world.

2. Practice Yoga
Yoga is an excellent way for women and pregnant mothers to balance the energies between their mind and body. Yoga stretches/poses enable will enable you to release the stresses of the day or of your life, through long slow stretching poses, and deep breathing. Practicing Yoga on a daily bases helps slow down your world, bring balance between your body and mind, and helps release any stress locked in your body.

3. Take Solitary Walks
Walking is one of the most beneficial physical movements you can do for yourself. Not only does it help with increasing your lung capacity and endurance, it helps all the organs of your body function more efficiently. From maintaining a healthy digestive system, gaining strength in legs and lower body, walking also helps with physical balance and coordination. A solitary walk is very beneficial as it give you time to experience nature, and be quiet with your thoughts. What’s important is slow deep breathing inhaling through your nose to fill lower stomach and slowly pushing out through your nose. How you walk is important also. Don’t forget to move those hips and enjoy being a feminine woman.

4. Spend More Time With Nature
Women are more naturally connected with nature than they give themselves credit for. Your menstrual cycles are in coordination with the cycles of the moon for one thing, which ties all cycles of life together and maintains natural balance in our world.

Plants: Spending time in nature surroundings, tending to your inside and outside plants of your garden helps you reconnect with that balanced energy that is nature. Since the plants of nature do not worry about finances and being loved, they are great to provide balanced energy to you so you can get back on track.

Not so good with plants? Here are a few tips that will help you find balance with your plants. (1) Always use filtered water, never chlorinated tap water; it dries out the plants and burns the tips of the leaves. (2) Put a natural stone in every house plant, the stone has the constant and natural energy vibration of the earth. Remember, stones are of the earth. Just like the heartbeat of the mother that soothes the new born child, plants need to be connected to mother earth to thrive.

If you want to actually feel the energy vibrations from stones, just place a stone in the palm of your open left hand, close your eyes, and using Buddha Breathing as if meditating, which is breathing deeply, expanding your lower stomach when inhaling. You will feel a pulsing like a heart beat. That’s the natural ‘Chi’ energy of the earth pulsating from the stone.

5. Avoid Most Media
Most women don’t realize that media advertisement from radio, TV and magazines can be the most damaging to them from a security and self esteem perspective. Consistently in order to sell you a product, the commercial will tell you that you are ‘less’ of a women, or ‘less’ attractive and until you purchase their product you will not be attractive or loved. A suggestion is to use Digital Video Recorder (DVR) and skip past the commercials, and only record shows you want to watch that empower you as a woman, as a mother.

6. Listen To Instrumental, Jazz, Classical music
Just like affirmations or prayer, the words in songs you listen to help you created how you feel about yourself, and the experiences of your life. The more you listen to music about bad relationships and frustration, the more you will experience this in your life. You might think the artist is ‘speaking to you’, but as you sing along, you are affirming those same experiences to be created in your life. Instead try listening to music without words, during this first trimester. You will quickly find that your mind is less filled with negative thoughts about yourself or your life, but uplifted to the point of singing your own words to the instrumental songs, empowering yourself that much more.

If you have cable or satellite TV, there are many jazz, instrumental and classical commercial free music channels to play if you like having something uplifting in the background while at home, instead of a television program. Remember, your child is listening too.


7. Find Balance In Stressful Relationships
If you know you are struggling in your current relationship with the child’s potential father or child’s father, this three month period is the time to find a common ground. If not for you, but for your unborn child. Maybe it’s time to end or distance yourself from that person for the health of your child. Maybe it’s time to re-think who you are choosing to have a child with. It’s all about finding a balance and relationship choices made out of loneliness or desperation are never the healthiest choices to make.

8. Ask For Help
Don’t be afraid to ask for help during this time period. Let others take on more of the work load at the office; ask for more time off, ask friends and family to help more with your current children so you can have more time to yourself. Get the father involved and let him know what he can do to help you remain balanced. Avoid volunteering for more project so that you have more time for yourself. You will be surprised at how many people who are willing to lend a helping hand once they know you are going to be a new mother. Use your mother power!

9. Pamper Yourself
I can’t say this enough. Not only for the health of your child, but for your own well being. Just think about it. You are in the process of bringing new life into the world. This is a time to treat yourself well. Pamper yourself by doing things like getting a pedicure and manicure on a regular basis. Schedule a facial once a week. Get a massage as often as you can. During this three month period, schedule events that celebrate your pregnancy and pamper you on a regular basis.

10. Have A Party
Be creative, even think about holding a ‘Pamper the Mother’ party for yourself or one of your girlfriends who just became pregnant. The focus could be to provide gift certificates for spa treatments, luncheons, shopping trips, etc all focused on pampering the new mother during the first trimester. This pampering time could be very helpful for mothers to balance out the lack of attention the mother may receive once the child is born. Save the baby shower for later which focuses on the child material needs.

PART SIX - External Influences

Taking a common sense approach to understanding and reducing your chance of creating an ‘Intersex’ child is less complicated than you might think.

Birth Control Pills
Studies show that mothers, who unknowingly continued to take birth control pills during the early stages of pregnancy, when carrying a boy child, also tend to give birth to a greater number of ‘Intersex’ boys.

It is very important to know when you are pregnant as early as possible, since birth control pills for the most part, are a synthetic form of the hormones progesterone and estrogen. Taking birth control pills while carrying a boy child should be avoided, as the influx of the synthetic estrogen and as you now know, can create an imbalance in the testosterone necessary for the male’s healthy sexual development of the hypothalamus.

Synthetic Estrogen
Synthetic estrogen therapy can create very similar risks for the male child. Recent studies also have shown that synthetic hormones also increase the chance of breast and other cancers in premenopausal and menopausal women. Even before this official finding, many proactive women took action and refused to take the synthetic hormones and choose more natural methods for balancing their female hormones. This proactive approach may have been key to saving the breasts and lives of millions of women, along with reducing their chance of creating a male child with the ‘Intersex’ condition.

The Impact of Soy
In a 2004 issue of Mothering magazine, their article “Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food” points out that even though soy can be an excellent source of protein and a great substitute for cows milk, soy naturally contains a high level of estrogens. Understanding what you now know about increasing estrogen levels when carrying a male child, you may want to also avoid soy products during the critical first three months of pregnancy. However, if carrying a female child, the additional natural estrogen provided by soy may be just what your female child needs.

Personal Stress and Fear
The first step for mothers would be to gain as much information about the ‘Intersex’ conditions so you have a full understanding and are not fearful. You can visit the Intersex Society of North America at http://www.isna.org/. The more you know, the better prepared you are to take make more informed choices around your unborn child’s care and development.

A very clear coloration between growth of Intersex children is with the rapid increase of pregnant women working stressful jobs outside the home during the first trimester. As far back as the early 70s and the large number of ‘Intersex’, homosexual or ‘gay’ children who are now between the ages of 1 to 35. And the numbers continue to grow every year as elementary, junior high and high schools try to deal with this influx of sexually diverse and gender challenged children.

Understand that this is not an issue of working women, but an issue of women being stressed during the critical first trimester or first 3 months of pregnancy. It’s all about setting the right priorities at the right time.

It is vitally important for the sexual health of particularly the male child that you ensure that before attempting to get pregnant. The focus is to do everything you can to prepare yourself to ensure that your first trimester (first 3 months) are the most stress and fear free to protect the sexual development of your child, male or female.

Traditionally, special care early on is normally only a focus if the woman has indications of a condition that puts her pregnancy at risk. However, when pregnant with specifically a male child, it may be critical for you to create as much a stress free environment and life as possible for the first three months, for his healthy sexual development.

PART FIVE - A Mother's Stress & Fear

Over the past 30 years or so, the number of children who grew to be , men and women feel that they were born ‘homosexual’ or ‘gay’ has taken a huge leap. This huge leap in the birth of ‘Intersex’ children seems to be directly related to the increase of stress in the lives of women and potential mothers.

A few of the primary stressors for women today are:
- Financial Insecurity
- Stressful Job
- Emotional Issues
- Body Image/Weight Gain
- Emotionally Unfulfilling Marriage
- Abusive Relationships/Marriage
- Unexpected Pregnancy
- Unwanted Pregnancy
- Too Many Children
- Single Parent


Stress Hormones and the Fetus:
These stressful situations have a negative impact on not only the females physical and mental condition, but impact the healthy development of her unborn child. If a mother is stressed during the early stages of pregnancy, she will release an adrenaline related hormone into her own bloodstream and that of her unborn child. This hormone is called androstendione.

If the baby carries a “XY” chromosome and is destine to become a male, testosterone needs to be active when the Central Nervous System (CNS), including the hypothalamus, is being developed. This is the only way that the CNS knows to develop along male lines. Because the stress hormone androstendione seems to bind the receptors that would normally be receiving testosterone, there is the delay or blockage of the effectiveness of testosterone, even if it’s plentiful.

Stress Impact on the Hypothalamus
When a woman is pregnant with a fetus that is destined to be male, the influx of the stress-related hormone, androstendione, can inhibit the effectiveness of testosterone, and effectively prevent or inhibit the hypothalamus from developing into a sexually healthy male brain.

The hypothalamus (small portion of the brain) makes a gender commitment very early in development, and once committed to either male or female, after the first trimester, it can not be changed. The interference of testosterone in the later states of pregnancy or after the first trimester, or after birth, does little or nothing to inhibit primary gender development of the other organs of the body. This is why with hormone treatment, we can modify our physical body appearance and physiology, but we are not able to impact the hypothalamus.

Therefore it is possible that while the body and organs of a child can be a various levels of ‘male’, the brain can essentially be various levels of ‘female’ based on the early development of the hypothalamus during the first trimester. The concept of personal choice as it relates to homosexual behavior appears to be an insignificant factor in those males who were born with a less male and more female hypothalamus. To the degree that the hypothalamus remains female, the person will be mentally more female, no matter what the physical appearance may be. Thus the attraction for males is heterosexual in nature, since the person is actually partially mentally female.

Intersex in Nature
This extreme reaction to maternal stress even may have a very logical and natural purpose. Based on clinical studies involving mice, when the female mouse, sensing that a population is under the stress of crowding, lack of food or poor living conditions, nature provides this natural mechanism as a means to limit population growth thereby reducing the cause for the stress.
The result is male mice are born with a limited or lack of a desire to procreate. This homosexual behavior in mice dictates that less offspring will be produced, thus ensuring that the mother’s offspring will not produce more offspring into the already stressed population. So from a natural perspective, the Intersex condition seems to be a survival mechanism directly linked to environmental conditions, to help the population from starving itself into extinction.

So now the question is, what can a mother do to create more balanced conditions and reduce her chances of giving birth to an ‘Intersex’ child?

PART FOUR - The First Trimester

Understanding Sexuality and the Hypothalamus
The first three months of a women’s pregnancy is considered the most important phase of your child’s sexual identity development.

During the first trimester most parts of the human brain are formed. This includes the small portion called the ‘hypothalamus’. The hypothalamus is the neurological center of a person’s sexuality and gender identity among other things.

Basic science tells us that the hypothalamus is significantly different between males and females. However the latest research shows that the hypothalamus of Intersex/homosexual males is also significantly different than ‘heterosexual’ males. And the hypothalamus of ‘Intersex/homosexual’ females is significantly different than ‘heterosexual females.

What this tells us is that the development of the hypothalamus of the male and female, which is the primary gender identity component of the brain, is being impacted during the first trimester....but how?

Understanding Chromosomes and Hormones:
What dictates whether the fetus will remain female or become male has to do with genetics...chromosomes and hormones. An ‘XX’ pair of chromosomes will yield a female; an ‘XY’ pair will result in a male. The ‘X’ is always contributed from the mother, since she only has “X’s”, but the father can contribute either an ‘X’ or a ‘Y”, so it is the father’s genetic contribution that determines the gender of the child.

Basic embryology dictates that all embryos start out as female with ‘XX’ chromosomes. If at some point in early gestation, the chromosomes (XY) destine the fetus to be male, the female embryo is altered by the genetically programmed addition of certain hormones, called androgens.

These androgens, especially ‘testosterone’, instruct the embryo to develop male characteristics, impacting the development of the hypothalamus for a male.

If the androgen known as testosterone is not available to the fetus, or is inhibited in any way, the embryo continues to develop into a female. However, when the chromosomes (XY) destine the fetus to be male, but stress and fear conditions impact the mother, the available testosterone is not able to reach the male fetus, the result is a male gender child that is not completely sexually developed mentally and or physically as male and not completely sexually developed as female.

PART THREE - Where It All Starts

I think the best place to start this conversation is at the beginning, and an explanation of what it means to be “Intersex”. The term Intersex is a general term used for a variety of conditions where a person is born with a mental, reproductive, sexual anatomy, or physical body characterizes that does not fit the typical and accepted definitions or conditions to be clearly male or female.

If you ask experts at medical centers how often a child is born so noticeably atypical in terms of genitalia that a specialist in sex differentiation is called Intersex, the number comes out to about 1 in 2000 births here in the U.S. But a lot more children than that are born with mental and subtler forms of sex anatomy variations, most of which won’t show up until after puberty.

Physical and Genetic Intersex Conditions:
Visible physical conditions of a person born with a level of the Intersex condition might be born appearing to be male on the outside, but having mostly female-typical anatomy on the inside. Or a person may be born with genitals that seem to be in-between the usual male and female types—for example, a girl may be born with a noticeably large clitoris, or lacking a vaginal opening, or a boy may be born with a notably small penis, or with a scrotum that is divided so that it has formed more like labia.

Of the 1 in 2,000 children born with variations of these physical conditions often times are operated on to help clearly define them as male or female. Unfortunately when the doctors and parents guess wrong, we end up with a male who mentally has developed into a female, or a female who mentally has developed into a male. Many of these people consider themselves transsexuals, but actually suffer from a more extreme case of the Intersex condition.

Other Intersex children may be born with mosaic genetics (a mixture of XX and XY chromosomes), so that some of her cells have XX chromosomes and some of them have XY. Those with mosaic genetics tend to be for example males who look ‘more’ female and females that look ‘more’ male, which does not always correspond with the development of the hypothalamus (primary organ that dictates sexual identity). The result is a child born mentally male, however his body is less male or more feminine, and versa for women.


Childhood, Puberty and Adults with Intersex Conditions:
Though we speak of Intersex as an inborn condition, Intersex anatomy doesn’t always show up at birth. Sometimes a child isn’t found to show signs of an intersex condition until early childhood. Many times this is identified with male children who consistently are attracted to girl’s activities (dolls, dressing up, etc), and girls who are more focused on participating in traditional boy activities (contact sports, boys clothing, etc).

In many cases a person isn’t found to have Intersex anatomy until she or he reaches the age of puberty, or finds himself an infertile adult. Some people live and die with Intersex anatomy without anyone (including themselves) ever knowing. Many know they are different but never really understand why.

There are definite clues to an Intersex condition after puberty and in adult males and females. A few examples of this are boys that are obviously more feminine and girls that are obviously more male in their behavior. Or at the onset of puberty, a male may develop breasts, an inability to grow facial hair, his penis will not develop to a normal adult size, or he will develop more female facial features. A female may not develop what is considered normal size breasts, female sex organs may never fully develop, or she may develop a more masculine/muscular body and facial features.

So what is it that caused the creation of ‘Intersex’ children? Is it nature, is it the luck of the draw. Research tells us that the Intersex condition is locked in when the ‘hypothalamus’ (the neurological center for sexuality) is developed. This happens during the first trimester of pregnancy.