Gender Identity Disorder

This disorder comes in three varieties, and diagnosing it has the usual requirements that it be a strong and persistent problem and that it cause clinically significant distress or impairment. The specific symptoms necessary for the diagnosis in children are that they have a strong desire to be the opposite sex, prefer to play with members of the opposite sex, prefer to wear clothes culturally thought appropriate for the opposite sex, fantasize being the opposite sex and prefer to play the role of the opposite sex in play, and prefer the games the culture deems more appropriate for the opposite sex.

In adolescents and adults, the symptoms are more grownup versions of those above; the person may sometimes pass as the opposite sex and be convinced that he or she has the same feelings as the opposite sex. At all ages, the person must experience discomfort with her or his gender role. This may be manifested by strong desires to get rid of the person's biologically given genital apparatus in favor of that native to the opposite sex. Adolescents and adults often wish to, and sometimes do, change their primary and/or secondary sex characteristics through surgery and hormonal manipulation.

The diagnosis is not made if the individual has anatomical characteristics of both sexes. This reason for refusing to make the diagnosis does not require that the person be a true hermaphrodite.

It is difficult, if not impossible, in most cases of Gender Identity Disorder (GID) to make the person happy with his or her biological identity via either psychotherapy or hormonal treatments. Psychotherapy may, however, be useful in treating the side effects of GID, which are likely to include depressed mood or even depression. It may be extraordinarily difficult for families to support transsexuals, particularly when they seek surgery to change their anatomical characteristics, but such support is also extraordinarily helpful to people with GID. 

Go to the web site of the transsexual association, which provides access to some support groups.

                                                                                                                                Last updated  12/19/03