The Pathophysiology Of Gender Dysphoria

The part that confuses the majority of the people that are not transgender or don’t quite understand what it is, is when they speak to someone they thought was a certain sex and are asked to refer to them as the opposite sex. For example, meeting someone that appears to be a man and asked to refer to him as she/her. This can be especially confusing if a family member is going through a transition. Family members tend to be the most affected by a transgender in the family, they do not know how to react or how to help because they are most likely the only transgender in the family. Being transgender is not a choice, it is a feeling and almost all people that are transgender are unlikely to be able to feel happiness or find peace in life if they are not who they feel they truly are meant to be.

Only 5% of these females experienced gender dysphoria- which shows that other factors are important in gender development and that hormones weren’t a key factor of determining gender in this study. This criticism of the biological approach shows that it is too reductionist, in that it ignores other factors. As well it is deterministic, as it reduces human behaviour down to simply biology and the act of hormones on gender development, ignoring social and cultural influence.

Discussion of issues related to non-normative sexual and gender identities as related to mental health began in the 19th century (Drescher, 2010). Initially medical and psychiatric providers viewed issues related to gender identity as resulting from delusional thought processes (Drescher, 2010). As a result the concept of surgery as a solution to gender identity differences was viewed as unnecessary and ultimately an incorrect form of treatment (Drescher, 2010). In 1952 the first gender reassignment surgery was performed in Denmark on an American citizen (Drescher, 2010). The publicity in the American media that followed this surgery brought the concept of gender identity to the public eye. During the 1960s research about gender identity started to develop and it was the work of Money, Stoller, Benjamin, and Green that ultimately change professional and public concept of Gender Identity (Drescher, 2010). These four individuals were among the first to conduct clinical and academic research on gender identity and gender roles (Drescher, 2010). As a result of their research beliefs about non-normative gender identity shifted from a problem of the mind to a biological disorder that was fixed and should be treated with

According to the articles, the causes of transgender is a person having vague feelings of not fitting in with people of their same sex, and some experiencing gender-conforming attitudes and behaviors later in life. A controversial cause is gender dysphoria according to the American Psychiatric Association. Gender dysphoria is defined as persistent gender incongruence. This is a very debated topic and its current classification may change in the future.

Factors anywhere from parental inheritance, to hormone obscurities and even media influence may play a role in evolving a person’s gender identity. People become transgender as they realize things like they do not quite fit into to the assignment of perspectives from society or want to explore other walks of life. Transexuals are types of people who want to make physical adaptations to their body to shape themselves to better fit the ideas of their desired gender. Cross dressers are a bit more tame and just decide to wear the other gender’s appropriate clothing. Drag royalty will dress like other genders to entertain. Finally, genderqueers bend the realms of what is societally respected and alter what pronouns they are associated with.

People are being treated unfairly and without consideration. According to Elizabeth Ries the author of “Divergence and disorder” Stated “ The conditions once known under the umbrella terms intersex and hermaphroditism are now generally being called disorders of sex development in medical settings. The terms might seem synonymous, but in fact there are significant differences with controversial consequences. The term disorder of sex development may promise clarity for doctors who diagnose patients with such conditions and provide some relief for parents of children being born with such conditions, but it has produced considerable rancor among adults who identify as intersex. Specifically, their problem is with the word disorder. The disability rights movement has taught us that atypicality does not necessarily mean disordered. Doesn 't disorder imply something is seriously wrong and needs to

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

There’s been a lot of debate on the treatment of transgenders, in efforts to better the lives of those who suffer from gender dysphoria, both in a social and medical context. However, there isn’t much scientific understanding of the important ideas and questions that have sparked these debates. For instance, there haven’t been any explanations as to why, even after gender affirming and sex reassignment, transgenders are still at higher risks of mortality and suicidal behaviour than the general population (Dhejne et al. 2011). Despite this lack of understanding physicians and mental health care providers have arrived at a number of methods for treating individuals with gender dysphoria. One such practice is “gender-affirming,” rather than challenging, the therapist accepts

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).

However, many people whose “appearance or behavior is gender nonconforming will identify as a transgender person” (APA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns Office). There are many different types of transgender as well. People who identify as other than transgender usually self-identify as genderqueer, genderfluid, “androgynous, multigendered, gender nonconforming, third gender, and two-spirit” (APA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns Office). The meanings of these labels vary from individual to individual. Gender identity is a very personal subject, shaped by and individual’s experiences and values. Gender variance can be seen on a spectrum, varying between cross-dressing individuals who are comfortable with their biological sex, to individuals who experience extreme dysphoria when dealing with the conflict between their gender and sex. There is not yet a determined cause for the reason people identify as transgender. Scientists have reasoned that “genetic influences and prenatal hormone levels, early experiences, and experiences later in adolescence or adulthood” likely contribute, but are not the sole causes (APA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns Office). Lack of research into the psychology of gender variance is likely due to the social stigma attached to people whose identities fall outside the socially accepted gender

Gender dysphoria is the formal diagnosis for people who experience distress over their assigned physical sex and/or societal gender. People who suffer from this are colloquially called trans men (female to male) and trans women (male to female) respectively. Often, a trans person will elect to undergo medical transitioning to better align their physical body with their mind. As one can expect, transitioning is an arduous process which can include a plethora of medical treatments, such as hormone replacement therapy, mastectomy / breast augmentation, masculinization / feminization facial surgeries, hysterectomy, etc. Trans people who physically transition are said to be transsexual, due to the change of their physical sex instead of simply the change of how they present themselves. Transitioning is often seen as the pentacle of a trans person’s life, and it is a significant, political issue in the LGBT community.

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.

The lack of correlation between anatomical sex and gender identity was referred to as gender identity disorder, making its first appearance in the DSM-III

In general terms, I have never given gender identity much thought prior to this reading. Yes, I saw headlines about various people undergoing surgery to change their gender, but I did not consider all of the implications, and how it affects many people, other than the person who is receiving the surgery. Gender dysphoria affects social, medical, and even cultural perspectives, Yarhouse points out, when a child begins to show behaviors similar to the opposite sex, it places a lot of responsibility on the parents to how they should handle the situation. This leads off into how companies treat their employees who identify as transgender, and at various other places such as schools at all levels of education (Yarhouse, p. 15). As well as to how

After the depathologization of homosexuality, the DSM included yet another disorder known as gender identity disorder (GID) (Ross, 2009; Kamens, 2011). The following are some symptoms listed under this disorder: a strong cross-gender identification, continued discomfort with one’s biological sex, and that these disturbances cause clinically significant distress or impairment in all functioning aspects of life (Hozid, 2013). The populations that became stigmatized with this new diagnosis were the transgender and queer communities. Rather than focusing on the difficulty that the individual may be experiencing due to the mismatch between their biological sex and identified gender, the DSM-IV emphasized that it is gender variance that is the source of problems for the individual’s mental well-being (Ross, 2009). Again, society’s construction of what is “correct” oppresses those who do not find themselves belonging in the gender binary. With the rising momentum in the transgender movement, GID was removed from the DSM in the year of 2012 and renamed as gender dysphoria (Erickson-Schroth, 2014). While it appears that field of mental health was becoming more conscientious of its role in politics and culture, this relabeling is not without problems, nor does it serve as a real solution to issues arising in the mental health