Gender dysphoria is a condition that causes patients distress or mental discomfort related to the gender that they were assigned at birth. These patients might feel that they are male but were born female and vice versa. Some patients also believe that they are neither sex and that they have a fluid gender.
This mental health condition can be related to other health problems like anxiety, and depression, but it is not in and of itself a mental illness. Gender dysphoria is also not the same as sexual orientation.
The symptoms of sexual and gender disorders are:
Older patients will assert strongly that they do not feel an affinity for their assigned sex. They will also express a desire to change their body to conform to the identity that they feel connected to. They will usually also hold a strong conviction that their inner life and thoughts do not conform with their physical gender.
The causes of this condition are not well understood at this time. More research needs to be done to identify potential causal links between life experience, other health and well-being, and gender dysphoria. This condition is not a mental illness and cannot be classified through the use of mental health scoring systems or identification processes.
There are also no clear risk factors associated with this condition. Patients come from a wide array of backgrounds, nationalities, and locations around the world. There might be a link between anxiety and depression and some expressions of gender dysphoria, but this is not a common enough comorbidity to draw a strong link to this condition.
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Diagnosis of this condition is often linked with other healthcare that the patient is receiving. Patients might be in other forms of therapy related to another mental health concern, or they could seek treatment or evaluation based on the distress that they are feeling. Diagnosis is often based mostly on the patient’s own reported feelings and emotions about the disconnect between their physical state and their sense of self.
Prevention of this condition is not possible. This is not an illness or a mental health condition.
Treatment of gender and sexual disorders is usually done through a variety of different modalities. Puberty blockers and hormone therapy can change the physical body to prevent the growth of male and female physical identifiers like breasts. Hormone therapy can also change the shape of someone’s body and voice.
There are also sex or gender-affirming surgeries that some patients are eligible for. These treatments alter the state of the sex organs of the patient to help them to feel confirmed in their gender and comfortable with the appearance of their body.