Summary
Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to a mismatch between their gender identitytheir personal sense of their own genderand their sex assigned at birth. Previously, the diagnostic label gender identity disorder (GID) was used, until it was eliminated in 2013 with the release of the diagnostic manual DSM-5 in favor of the current term. The condition was renamed to remove the stigma associated with the term disorder. People with gender dysphoria commonly identify as transgender. Gender nonconformity is not the same thing as gender dysphoria and does not always lead to dysphoria or distress. The causes of gender incongruence are unknown but a gender identity likely reflects genetic, biological, environmental, and cultural factors. Treatment for gender dysphoria may include supporting the individual's gender expression or their desire for hormone therapy or surgery. Treatment may also include counseling or psychotherapy. Some researchers and transgender people support declassification of the condition because they say the diagnosis pathologizes gender variance and reinforces the binary model of gender. Without the classification of gender dysphoria as a medical disorder, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and gender affirming surgery may be viewed as cosmetic treatments by health insurance, as opposed to medically necessary treatment, and may not be covered. Distress arising from an incongruence between a person's felt gender and assigned sex/gender (usually at birth) is the cardinal symptom of gender dysphoria. A 2018 review published in PLOS Global Public Health found, however, that gender dysphoria does not reflect sexual orientation or attraction. Another 2018 review published in Adolescent Health, Medicine, and Therapeutics likewise found no relation between sexual orientation and gender dysphoria. A 2021 review in Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience found no relation either, and stated that historically the two were often erroneously conflated.
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.