Own Study

Family background

As transsexualism is often blamed on circumstances in childhood (see e.g. Lukianowicz, 1959a), such as the loss of a parent through death or divorce, I compared the transsexuals with a series of controls for various social data. Five had to be excluded from this analysis, 3 men (cases 6, 14, 26) and 2 women (cases 41, 43), 4 of them because they were born in a foreign country, and I because she was added too late to the series to get all the information needed for this analysis.

For controls, I asked at the parishes for the names of the two same-sexed persons born directly before each transsexual in the same parish, and also of the two born directly after. The first three subjects in order in the lists sent me I took as controls. If one had died, the fourth one was substituted. I then assembled the data I needed for the following analysis about the controls and their parents from the same sources as I tapped for the transsexuals.

Parents' social standing. The parents were divided into three social groups, as is the practice in Sweden; the norms for these groups are described in the Official Statistics of Sweden (Government election statistics for 1937-1940). If the child was adopted, the adoptive father's social group was noted. If it was illegitimate and not legitimized before the age of 4, the mother's social group was noted.

Eight per cent, or 3, of the transsexuals were born in social group 1; 34 per cent, or 13, in group 11; and 58 per cent, or 22, in group 111. The corresponding figures for the control group were 4 per cent (5), 23 per cent (26) and 73 per cent (83). Thus there was no significant difference between the groups in social standing.

Frequency of only children and sex of sibs. Thirteen per cent (5/38) of the transsexuals were only children, and 16 per cent of the controls (18/114). The difference is not statistically significant.

The male transsexuals had 35 sisters and 43 brothers and the male controls-three times the number of the transsexuals -had 109 sisters and 90 brothers. The female transsexuals had 25 sisters and 16 brothers, and the female controls 38 sisters and 39 brothers. Combining the sexes, the transsexuals had 60 sisters and 59 brothers, and the controls 147 sisters and 129 brothers. There is no significant difference here, either between the female and male transsexuals, or between the transsexuals and controls, either divided or not divided by sex.

Parental loss through parental death, divorce or illegitimacy. The figures for parental loss were as follows:

The transsexuals did not differ significantly from the controls in any of these respects.

The parents of 2 male transsexuals died before they were 15 and the parents of 3 female transsexuals-fathers and I mother. The correponding figures for the controls were 7 and 5 - 3 mothers and 9 fathers. Though 17 transsexuals are listed under parental loss, in I case both the child was illegitimate and the mother died. Thus the actual number of cases of parental loss among the transsexuals amounted to 16, or 42 per cent (cases 3, 4, 10, 11, 12, 16, 18, 23, 27, 28, 30, 31, 34, 35, 37, 42). The corresponding figures for the controls were 30, or 26 per cent. In other words, they did not differ significantly from the controls in parentalloss.

In 50 per cent of the 16 cases of parental loss among the transsexuals, the family was deprived of a parent while the child was between the ages of 0 and 3, in 31 per cent between the ages of 4 and 9, and in 19 per cent after the age of 10. The corresponding figures for the controls were 43, 30 and 27 per cent.

Social assistance. Enquiries at the social agencies in all the districts where the parents of the transsexuals and controls had lived revealed the following:

In neither respect did the transsexuals differ significantly from the controls.

Parents reported for drinking. Enquiries at all the local temperance councils (where all forms of drunken misconduct are registered in Sweden) regarding the parents, revealed the following number on the books of these agencies-for anything from a single instance of drunkenness to constant drunkenness and crimes committed while drunk.

It was impossible to get complete data in this respect for 4 of the fathers. Otherwise the transsexuals' fathers had a significantly greater amount of complaints lodged against them for intemperance than did the fathers of the controls (p<0.02).

Complaints to child ivelrare boards about home conditions. Enquiries at all the child welfare boards revealed the following:

One transsexual had to be excluded from this breakdown because the books of the child welfare board before 1952 were not available, and 2 controls, both women, had emigrated, and it was impossible to check them in the records of the child welfare boards.

If one looks to the cases themselves, one finds that complaints were made to the child welfare board, or the child was taken away from its home, in 30 per cent (11/37) of the cases of transsexualism (cases 1, 3, 7, 27, 30, 31, 34, 36, 37, 38, 42) against 10 per cent of the control series. Here the difference is significant (p<0.01).

The difference is also significant (p<0.02) between the number of transsexuals and controls who suffered from none of the disadvantages in childhood studied. If one considers that parental death, divorce, illegitimacy and placement away from home includes all forms of parental deprivation, parental deprivation was significantly over-represented among the transsexuals (p<0.01).

Parents needing to consult psychiatrists about themselves. Enquiries concerning the 76 parents of the transsexuals at the psychiatric departments of general hospitals and at mental hospitals revealed that 4 had consulted a psychiatric department. One was hospitalized for endogenous depression (father in case 30) and I for a postpartum psychosis and anancasms (mother in case 3). Two mothers had sought legal permission for abortion (mothers in cases 27 and 29). The mother in case 27 had also been hospitalized under the diagnosis of "reactive neurotic-depression". The mother in case 29 had also consulted an out-patient department of a mental hospital about a disablement pension. Thus altogether 4 out of the 76 parents, I father and 3 mothers, had consulted a psychiatrist. This is no more than one would expect from a normal population.