What is Gender Dysphoria?

A feeling of discomfort or distress that happens when a person whose gender identity is different from the sex assigned at birth or sex-related physical characteristics is called gender dysphoria. Moreover, gender-diverse and transgender people may experience this condition at least once during their lives. In any case, many transgender and gender-diverse people feel more comfortable with their bodies either with or without medical treatments.

This condition is included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) published by the American Psychiatric Association. It was made to help people with gender dysphoria get the necessary health care and treatments.

Symptoms

This condition causes adults and adolescents to experience differences between inner gender and assigned one that usually lasts approximately 6 months. If you experience at least 2 of the following symptoms, you might have gender dysphoria. For example:

Differences between genitals and gender identity, or secondary sex characteristics (including voice, facial hair, and breast size).
Strong desires to get rid of genitals or secondary sex characteristics, to prevent the development of secondary sex characteristics, to have genitals of another gender, and to be treated as another gender.
Such people may also strongly believe in having typical feelings and reactions of another gender.

This condition causes serious distress that negatively affects a person’s functioning in multiple social situations. These include at school, work, or others.

Commonly, the condition begins in childhood and then continues in adolescence and adulthood. Some people have periods in which they no longer have gender dysphoria symptoms or experience it during puberty or later in life.

What Are The Complications of Gender Dysphoria?

This mental disorder negatively affects different life aspects (such as daily routine). Those who experience gender dysphoria may have difficulties in school often caused by pressure to dress according to your assigned sex at birth or out of fear of being teased or harassed. If the condition causes problems in functioning at school or work it may lead to school dropout or unemployment.

Gender dysphoria may also cause relationship difficulties, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, substance use disorders, self-harm, and others.

In addition, people with gender dysphoria frequently experience discrimination, which results in stress. For such people is difficult to access mental health services because of a lack of experienced care providers and a fear of stigma. However, if people with gender dysphoria do not get treatment, they are at higher risk of attempting or thinking about suicide.

Diagnosis

Healthcare providers usually diagnose this condition based on the following factors. For example:

Behavioral health evaluation – Doctors will perform an evaluation to confirm gender dysphoria and how minority stress factors (such as discrimination) negatively affect your mental health.
DSM-5 – The criteria for gender dysphoria from this manual also are used by your doctor during diagnosis.

Treatment

The treatment goal is to help people with this mental disorder find the gender role they feel more comfortable with and reduce stress. However, the treatment for gender dysphoria is different each time because what helps one person may not help another. Commonly, doctors prescribe behavioral and hormone therapies, recommend changes in gender expression and role, and surgery. Moreover, your doctor may also perform some tests to rule out other mental conditions because they may make it more difficult to treat gender dysphoria.

Changes in Gender Expression and Role

This treatment option usually includes living part or full-time in another gender role that is consistent with your gender identity.

Medical Treatment

These include:

Hormone therapy (including feminizing hormone therapy or masculinizing hormone therapy)
Surgery (such as feminizing or masculinizing surgery that changes external genitalia, chest, internal genitalia, facial features, and body contour).

While some people use hormone therapy to seek maximum masculinization or feminization, others use this therapy to reduce secondary sex characteristics (such as facial hair and breasts). Healthcare providers usually prescribe treatment based on your goals, the risks and benefits of medicine use, existing health conditions, social and economic problems, and other factors.

Check below some criteria for surgical and hormonal treatment of gender dysphoria provided by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health:

It is advised to control serious medical or mental conditions that are present.
The legal age in the country of a person with gender dysphoria lives. Younger people should follow the standard of care for children and adolescents.
Well-documented gender dysphoria.

In addition, there are some criteria to apply to certain surgical procedures. Check below what includes the evaluation before surgery or hormonal treatment:

Family history
Laboratory tests
Physical examinations
Management of tobacco, drug, or alcohol use
Sexually transmitted infections tests (such as for HIV infection)
Assessment of desire for fertility preservation and referral as needed for egg, embryo, sperm, or ovarian tissue cryopreservation
Medical history of harmful treatments (including unprescribed hormone use, industrial-strength silicone injections, self-surgeries, and others)

Behavioral Health Treatment

This treatment option is used to improve the psychological well-being and quality of life in people with gender dysphoria. It cannot change your gender identity but helps explore gender concerns and lessen gender dysphoria.

The treatment goal is to make you feel more comfortable with your gender identity and address other mental health problems. Check below what includes this therapy:

Integration and exploration of your gender identity
Yourself acceptation
Management of other mental or emotional concerns
A plan to fix social and legal problems associated with transition and coming out to loved ones, friends, colleagues, and other people
Healthy sexuality in the context of gender transition
Improve the well-being and quality of life
Helps make important decisions about medical treatments and others

For more details, discuss it with your healthcare professional.

Check below for additional ways to reduce gender dysphoria:

Support groups
Communication therapy helps develop voice characteristics that match the expressed gender
Hair removal
Genital tucking
Breast binding or padding
Packing

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the primary cause of gender dysphoria?

However, healthcare providers do not know the exact cause of this mental disorder but they think a combination of factors (such as biological, environmental, and cultural) play a role.

What is the best treatment for gender dysphoria?

Generally, the treatments are different among people with this condition. Physicians usually prescribe changes in gender expression and role, hormone therapy, surgery, behavioral therapy, and others. Discuss with your healthcare professional for more details.

What are the possible complications of gender dysphoria?