ISSUES
: Sexuality and Gender
Chapter 2: Gender identity
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how
your
feelings
and
behaviours have developed
over time
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what support you have, such
as friends and family.
The assessment may also involve
a more general assessment of your
physical and psychological health.
Treatment for gender
dysphoria
If the results of an assessment
suggest that you or your child have
gender dysphoria, staff at the GIC
will work with you to come up with
an individual treatment plan. This will
include any psychological support
you may need.
Treatment for gender dysphoria
aims to help reduce or remove the
distressing feelings of a mismatch
between biological sex and gender
identity.
This can mean different things for
different people. For some people, it
can mean dressing and living as their
preferred gender.
For others, it can mean taking
hormones or also having surgery to
change their physical appearance.
Many trans people have treatment
to change their body permanently,
so they’re more consistent with their
gender identity, and the vast majority
are satisfied with the eventual results.
What causes gender
dysphoria?
Gender development is complex and
there are many possible variations
that cause a mismatch between a
person’s biological sex and their
gender identity, making the exact
cause of gender dysphoria unclear.
Occasionally, the hormones that
trigger the development of biological
sex may not work properly on
the brain, reproductive organs
and genitals, causing differences
between them. This may be caused
by:
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additional hormones in the
mother’s system – possibly as a
result of taking medication
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the foetus’ insensitivity to the
hormones, known as androgen
insensitivity syndrome (AIS)
– when this happens, gender
dysphoria may be caused by
hormones not working properly
in the womb.
Gender dysphoria may also be
the result of other rare conditions,
such as:
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congenital adrenal hyperplasia
(CAH) – where a high level of
male hormones are produced
in a female foetus. This causes
the genitals to become more
male in appearance and, in
some cases, the baby may be
thought to be biologically male
when she is born.
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intersex conditions – which
cause babies to be born with
the genitalia of both sexes (or
ambiguous genitalia). Parents
are recommended to wait until
the child can choose their own
gender identity before any
surgery is carried out.
How common is gender
dysphoria?
It’s not known exactly how many
people experience gender dysphoria,
because many people with the
condition never seek help.
A survey of 10,000 people undertaken
in 2012 by the Equality and Human
Rights Commission found that 1% of
the population surveyed was gender
variant, to some extent.
While gender dysphoria appears
to be rare, the number of people
being diagnosed with the condition
is increasing, due to growing public
awareness.
However, many people with gender
dysphoria still face prejudice and
misunderstanding.
12 April 2016
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The above information has been
reprinted with kind permission
from NHS Choices. Please
visit
for further
information.
© NHS Choices 2016
Gender terminology
Gender dysphoria is a complex condition that can be difficult to
understand. Therefore, it helps to distinguish between the meanings
of different gender-related terms:
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gender dysphoria
– discomfort or distress caused by a mismatch
between a person’s gender identity and their biological sex
assigned at birth
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transsexualism
– the desire to live and be accepted as a member
of the opposite sex, usually accompanied by the wish to have
treatment to make their physical appearance more consistent with
their gender identity
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transvestism
– where a person occasionally wears clothes
typically associated with the opposite gender (cross-dressing) for
a variety of reasons
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genderqueer
– an umbrella term used to describe gender
identities other than man and woman – for example, those who
are both man and woman, or neither man nor woman, or moving
between genders.
Gender dysphoria isn’t the same as transvestism or cross-dressing
and isn’t related to sexual orientation. People with the condition may
identify as straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual or asexual, and this may
change with treatment.
