Gender Dysphoria ranges from Childhood to Adult
Nicole Mimiaga
Gurnick Academy of Medical Arts Abstract
Children are more likely to have Gender Dysphoria than adults but tend to grow out of it due to normal development. For the purpose of this research paper, Gender Dysphoria, also known as Gender identity, will be explained in different ways on how it affects childhood, adolescence, and adults. It will also explain biological factors and the normal development of when a child grows up in the social aspect from ages 2-4. Gender Dysphoria can make someone feel very unhappy about themselves that can lead to mental illnesses which then can lead to several unwanted feelings. During childhood, there are behaviors that kid’s do that can lead
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It used to be called "Gender Identity Disorder" but not in fact a mental illness. For example; A person who has a vagina and all other physical traits of a female might feel that she is actually a male. Although there is no treatment for gender dysphoria, having those feelings can cause major distress, anxiety and depression that needs to be addressed. People who suffer from gender dysphoria have a higher rate of developing a mental illness which could include mood disorders, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, and suicide attempts …show more content…
They could experience constant discomfort with their biological sex, discomfort with biological sex not related to physical condition and intense discomfort or distress that can interfere with all areas of normal functioning such as jobs, or socially (http://healthresearchfunding.org/gender-identity-disorder-statistics/). Adolescence with strong feelings that they are the opposite sex usually become fully transsexual during teenage years (http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Gender-dysphoria/Pages/Symptoms.aspx).
Adult
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Retrieved from http://healthresearchfunding.org/gender-identity-disorder-statistics/ Dr Mary Harding (2015, February 23). Gender Dysphoria. Retrieved from http://patient.info/health/gender-dysphoria-leaflet DiProperzio, Linda (2013). Social Development Milestones: Ages 1 to 4. Retrieved from http://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/development/social/social-development-milestones-ages-1-to-4/ A. American Academy of Pediatrics (2015, June 4). Gender Identity Development in Children. Retrieved from https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/gradeschool/Pages/Gender-Identity-and-Gender-Confusion-In-Children.aspx
In class, we have learned and discussed how during the period of adolescence, it is known that this is the period of time where individuals are finding themselves and figuring out where they belong. It is during this time where individuals are the most sensitive and personal problems tend to arise more commonly during this stage. A major issue adolescents struggle during this stage is gender identity and sexuality. Adolescents are trying to figure out who they are attracted to and how they perceive themselves to be. While the norm is to identify oneself as their biological gender, there are those who develop gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria is a reoccurring feeling that one’s biological gender is the opposite of one’s sexual identity (Cole,
Best Practice & Research Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism published an article by Peggy T. Cohen-Kettenis and Daniel Klink titled Adolescents with gender dysphoria in 2015. The article discusses the increase of youth diagnosed with gender dysphoria and receiving medical treatment and possibly surgery as well. The authors stressed the importance for psychotherapy and/or family therapy. The article also discussed the factors that influence gender development psychological, social, and biological. There are not many studies on determinants of gender dysphoria, and no epidemiological studies in children younger than 15 exist at all. Although, more recently research has focused on histological and brain imagining studies on individuals diagnosed
Gender Dysphoria is described as “the condition of feeling one's emotional and psychological identity as male or female to be opposite to one's biological sex.” according to google.For me, it's knowing that during any moment there's a chance that I will experience some kind of dysphoria in relation to my body and expression. I've never really thought about my gender because I didn't have the vocabulary to describe how I felt. I identify as genderfluid; it took me all of high school to discover and accept this about myself. It wasn’t until one of my classmates came out as a non-binary trans boy, that I started to find the words to how I’ve been feeling.
Gender Dysphoria is one of the most important issues associated with problems people have with their gender identity. Aspects of Gender Dysphoria include
Feeling discomfort with one’s assigned gender has been something talked about in the mental health industry for many years. Gender Identity Disorders (GID) is when an individual finds conflict between their own gender and the gender he or she identifies as. Gender dysphoria is a condition of GID, in which ones’ emotional and psychological identity is opposite of one’s biological sex. Gender dysphoric children and adolescents are vulnerable to many forms of emotional distress such as depression. Children and adolescents experiencing this condition can have a troublesome time due to the lack of awareness there is to the existing information of this disorder. There are many risk factors that research says contributes to those who struggle with
This may be of clinical interest in psychology and psychiatry, as well as for primary care physicians (Gooren 2011; Care of Transsexual Persons.pdf) or medical specialists such as paediatricians (Khatchadourian 2013; 1-s2.0-S0022347613013644-main.pdf) but attempts to study the discrepancy in gender identity disorder has been met with varying results and attempts to characterise its potential aetiology remain unclear. The difficulty is further compounded in
Imagine this morning you woke up as the opposite gender. You would go about your day as normal, insisting that you were the same gender you were the day before despite the fact that everyone else insists that you are the opposite gender which you woke up as this morning. Maybe eventually you would go along with it and say that you were the opposite gender even though it feels wrong to you. Maybe you would continue to insist otherwise even though no one seems to listen to you. This is only the first of your problems though, as you would soon realize. You would run into many other problems throughout your day. For example, which bathroom would you use? How would you deal with being stuck in a body that just feels wrong? How should you dress yourself now? These are only a few of the problems transgender people face every single day, in addition to the bullying, discrimination, and non-acceptance from other people.
Those who suffer with the tough decision concerning gender are said to have gender dysphoria, A Gender Identity Disorder that focuses on transgenderism. Gender dysphoria is a condition in which there is a conflict between a person 's physical gender and the gender he or she identifies with (Medline Plus, 2014). Transgender individuals feel as if they were born in the wrong body and would love to be considered a member of the opposite sex, especially once their bodies start to change as they grow up. Most youth reported feeling they were transgender at puberty (Grossman & D 'augelli, 2006). During puberty the youth’s family and daily interactions at school play a critical part in life. During this time, children believe they will grow up to become the opposite sex (Medline Plus, 2014). As stated in “The Transgender Child”, “No one knows how common transgender children are. Some gender specialists say that 1 in 500 children is significantly gender-variant or transgender” (Brill & Pepper, 2008). These students go through school trying to fit in just to be accepted by the society around them, even though they were just disappointed by the fact that their bodies didn’t change. Youth noted four problems related to their vulnerability in health-related areas: the lack of safe environments, poor access to physical health services, inadequate resources to address their mental health concerns, and a lack of continuity of caregiving by
Renee’s emotional symptoms of feeling trapped within her own body, cognitive symptoms of thinking her female sex characteristics were disgusting, behavioral symptoms which include cutting her hair short and wrapping her chest with ACE bandage, in addition to her physical symptoms of desiring to be a male all indicate that she is experiencing gender dysphoria (Gorenstein & Comer, 2016). The main treatments for gender dysphoria typically occur in steps, beginning with comprehensive evaluations and psychotherapy, followed by medicinal hormone therapy, and then gender confirmation surgery. The evaluations and psychotherapy the patient receives involves useful diagnostic techniques and education, and continues for the course of the patient’s treatment. The psychotherapy works toward alleviating any other comorbidities that may exist in the patient before going forward with treatment. The medicinal therapy involves hormones administered to the patient so that their exterior sex characteristics align with their expressed gender. Finally, patients who are ready to progress forward, gender confirmation surgery is the next
Transgenderism, or gender dysphoria, is an area of medicine, which has been studied to some degree, yet remains vague as to pathophysiology and potentiating factors. There are, however, various hypotheses that have recently surfaced including sexual differentiation and sexual dimorphism of the brain. However, the evidence is insufficient to base the validity of these concepts. 8,5 Although the cause has yet to be fully understood, the diagnosis of gender variant individuals has changed drastically in the past 35 years, as aforementioned. In terms of diagnosis, clinicians utilize APA’s diagnostic criteria found in the current edition of DSM as well as International Classification of Diseases 10 (ICD-10). According to DSM-V, gender dysphoria is distress associated with an incongruence of assigned sex and expression of gender, which causes interference with social functionality. Currently, gender identity disorder is defined in ICD 10 (diagnosis code F64.1) as at least two years of a strong cross-sex identification usually accompanied by strong desire to medically transition one’s body to the expressed gender. 5
Gender dysphoria is described in the DSM-V as a marked incongruence in someone’s experienced or expressed gender and their assigned gender. A diagnosis of gender dysphoria in children requires the client to meet at least six criterions for duration of time lasting at least 6 months and it is necessary that presence of these criterions significantly distress or impair the client in social, school, or personal life. These criterions include a strong desire to be the other gender or an insistence that they are the other gender, a strong preference for cross-dressing or preference for wearing clothing of the other gender, a strong preference for playing the other gender role in fantasy or make-believe play, strong preference to play or interact
As of recent years, it has not been uncommon for children as young as age 5 to have supporting families identify them as the opposite sex as requested, and enter them into schools with new names and clothing to match the desired sex. The increase in percentages have significantly risen in the number of cases of children with Gender Dysphoria being treated. The increase would likely have increase due to the amount of support from parents and education received on this
Gender identity gives us a distinction between two different genetic sex that was determined at birth or describing yourself to be a male or female based on your body parts. Gender Dysphoria is a word to describe an individual who is battling with their own sense of reality towards their gender they were given from birth to how they feel they should be seen as when they look at themselves in the mirror. I think that everyone should love themselves no matter what and if there are some adjustments that they feel should be done in order to help boost their low self-esteem than why not, but when the problem is making you want to take your own life or develop self-hate towards their own body or appearance, then the person should go seek professional
People all over the world believe the notion that men and women were created to become companions to procreate the earth. In fact, each person is initially the same sex until the reproductive organs begin to externally develop around thirteen weeks of pregnancy. Prior to organ development, sex is determined by the fetus having an X or Y chromosome. Around 38 to 40 weeks of pregnancy, a full-term baby is born with either male or female physical attributes. This all seems to be what most would consider to be normal, but what about those who grow up not feeling as if their bodies represent who they are psychologically? Furthermore, gender dysphoria has become increasingly common and/or more people in the LGBT communities are speaking out about
I have never been comfortable with the topic of gender dysphoria. Comer (2013) describes the disorder where a “…people persistently feel that a vast mistake has been made, they have been born the wrong sex, and gender changes would be desirable” (356). It is very hard for me to wrap my brain around the idea that a person would be unaccepting of the gender that they were born with. I found it very interesting to read some of the explainations that involve biological reasoning for the disorder. It helped me gain a little understanding about why some of the people might experience the thoughts about their bodies and genders. Comer says that children even as young as three years old can display hate towards girly clothing, prefer to be around boys,