Gender Identity Disorder Essays

Gender identity development begins even before toddlers have the vocabulary to accompany their newfound sense of self. What influences this seemingly innate form of development? Overall, some researchers state that the main influence is environment factors including rearing conditions, societal expectations, cultural norms, and the child’s corresponding external genitalia rather than on the presence of chromosomes, gonads or hormones (Dittmann, 1998; Money, 1994; Newman,

Grossman, Arnold H. Anthony R. D’Augelli. “Transgender Youth: Invisible and Vulnerable.” Journal of Homosexuality. Vol. 51, No. 1 (2006): pages 111-128. Web. 25 June 2015. Arnold H. Grossman, a professor of Applied Psychology at New York University, and Anthony R. D’Augelli, professor of Human Development at Pennsylvania State University, did a study of Transgender youth from ages 15 to 21. The study was designed to determine the factors that affect the youth, who either identify as transgender or their gender does not fit the normal gender descriptions. Focus groups were used as nonthreatening environment to examine the youths’ social and emotional experiences. The study not only provided insight on their emotional and social experiences but

“One’s sense of gender resides in the brain” (“Gender Identity Disorder”), and this sense of gender is often there before you are born. Dr. Eric Vilain, a professor at the University of California, “identifies fifty-four genes that play a role in the expression of sex in a fetus before hormones are even released” (Windfeild 71&73). One of the biggest mental health issues that are out there is gender identity disorder which “may be as old as humanity (“Gender identity Disorder”). This disorder cause a person, normally a kid, to have a feeling of being the opposite sex . Another reason people need to be aware of people who have gender identity disorder is because if they feel as if they are not safe they may turn to a thing like suicide. “Suicide attempts and substance abuse are common” (“GID”) in people with Gender Identity Disorder. This is so because they often grow up feeling out of place or rejected by family and friends. To help with the mental health of these people with GID people should learn more about

Chapter eleven focuses on sexual disorders and gender identity disorders. For this discussion I wanted to talk about gender identity disorder. For ordinary individuals they can describe themselves or identify themselves as either males or females since we are a child. But, there are some individuals who do not experienced this type of clarity. For some individuals it is a sense that their identity is different from the gender category which they were born with or that it is something that lies outside of the usual male versus female categories. These individuals are known as transgender experiences. It is something that we are seeing more and more of in society today. Many of these transgender individuals come to terms with themselves and they find

Kristen A. Burgess, Emory University School of Medicine and Charles F Gillespie M.D., PhD, department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, state that “gender identity disorder is a mental disorder in which gender identity is incongruent with anatomical sex”. Individuals experience different degrees of unhappiness with their sex at birth, which in turn causes them to pursue the life and body of the opposite sex (2010).

Amongst disorders of modern day psychiatry, gender dysphoria (GD) is one of the more controversial diagnoses (Comer, 2014). The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013) defines GD, previously listed as gender identity disorder (GID), as “a marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender, of at least 6 months duration” (as cited in APA, 2013, p. 452). Individuals with GD generally feel extreme discomfort around their assigned gender, and have a desire to change their social identity and/or secondary sex characteristics to more closely resemble those of the other gender (Comer, 2014). Treatments for GD include psychotherapy, hormone therapy, and sexual reassignment surgery.

As early as the age of four (Vitale, 1996), some children begin to realize that the gender their body tells them they are, and the gender their mind tells them they are don't correspond. The sense of gender and the anatomical sex of a person mature at different times and different regions of the body (Vitale, 1997b). Sometimes the gendermap, the template within the mind of a person that codes for masculinity, femininity and androgyny doesn't coincide with the body of the individual (Vitale, 1997a). This condition is commonly referred to as Gender Identity Disorder (GID). GID is characterized by unrelenting confusion or discomfort of one's own

Steensma et al. (2010) conducted a qualitative study based on biographical interviews on twenty-five adolescents who were diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder in childhood. From the ages of 10 to 13 years old, they considered that time period to be crucial for adolescents with persisting gender dysphoria and adolescents with desisting gender dysphoria. Both persisters and desisters claimed that the factors that influenced their gender-related interests and behavior and feelings of gender discomfort and gender identification were the changes in their social environment, the anticipated and actual feminization or masculinization of their bodies, and the first experiences of falling in love and sexual attraction. Persisters are defined in

What is gender dysphoria? Gender dysphoria is defined as “a mental disorder marked by a strong desire to be of the opposite gender and identifying oneself as a person of the opposite gender”,(Kearney) which is also known as transsexualism. To fully understand this condition, symptoms, causes, and treatment should be discussed. How does being transsexual affect them in the long run with or without therapies?

The main focus of this article is to look at how suffering with Gender Dysphoria can affect relationships with parents and peers; the authors used a self-report assessment in order to obtain their results. In the study, the authors looked at poor relationships to see if they had a connection to behavioral and emotional problems that adolescents with Gender Dysphoria were demonstrating. The results showed that poor relationships with peers and family members were correlated to the behavior and emotional issues of adolescents with Gender Dysphoria.

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

Gender identity disorder is a condition where the person feels as if they belong to the opposite gender group, and it often causes discomfort and distress. This study was a long term follow up of adults with gender identity disorder after they had been treated. Many studies have a follow up period of about 5 years, but in this study the follow up period was a mean of 13.8 years. After sending invitations to participate in the study to 140 people, the sample included 71 individuals: 36 FtM and 35 MtF. To participate in the study you had to have legal recognition of gender change by a name change no less than ten years prior. The follow up was designed to evaluate the effects of gender identity disorder and the effects of treatment including their current psychological state and personal circumstances, their thoughts on their treatment, and the effects of the treatment using a mix of qualitative and quantitative measures.

At birth we are assigned a gender either female or male, depending on the physical characteristics the doctors see. According to (BOOK) gender is the behavioral, psychological, and social characteristics associated with being biologically male or female. However there are individuals that have disorder of sex development (DSD) also known as intersex. https://www.plannedparenthood.org states that intersex is more common than people realized, with 1 in 100 people being intersex in the U.S. Some people can go throughout their whole life without knowing they are intersexed. These people don’t fall under the male or female catagories, but are sorted into one of the categories and raised as that gender. Everyone is raised as a certain gender, but not everyone agrees that they are being raised as the correct gender. World wide gender is shown in different ways. According to

It is normally thought that gender is something that is developed at birth and is something that is set in stone. More recently in time, people have started to express that they feel that their gender identity is different and separate from their sex at birth. Egan and Perry are considered very important researchers in the field of gender identity and psychology. The two proposed that gender identity is multi-faceted and is made up of five different components that are generally independent of one another. The categories are as follows: knowing one belongs to one gender or another, how much they feel they belong to the category, how happy they are with that gender, how much pressure they feel to conform to gender stereotypes and how much they feel their sex is superior to the opposite (Carver, Yunger & Perry, 2003, p. 95). All of these relate to adjustment in different senses. Egan and Perry found that by middle childhood, most have a fairly stable idea of their standing on all of these categories. Their perception thrives most when they are confident in themselves and when they feel that they are not constricted in their freedom to explore other

The development of gender identity begins as early as two or three years of age. Parents, teachers, peers, and the media are social influences on a growing individual. We all want to seek everyone’s approval especially at a young age, so