Sex Change

Gender Dysphoria

A person with gender dysphoria is someone who is uncomfortable with traditional gender roles and has feelings and behaviours that conflict with their anatomical gender.

Sexual orientation

People with gender dysphoria may be heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual. Sexual orientation can however change after hormone and surgical treatment. For example a male to female transsexual person may be attracted to woman before surgery but may find they are attracted to men after surgery.

Transsexualism

Transsexuals often feel one gender psychologically whilst being another anatomically. Sometimes a person, with gender dysphoria, undergoes hormone and surgical treatment to physically change their sex.

Transvestism

Transvestism is also quite distinct from gender dysphoria. Transvestites are people who get sexual or emotional pleasure from wearing the clothing of the opposite sex. They are content with their gender identity but enjoy the fantasy of pretending to be a member of the opposite sex.

Symptoms of Gender Dysphoria

In childhood, boys may show an interest in traditionally feminine activities and girls may display 'tomboy' behaviour; they may express a desire to be the opposite sex. A few of these children continue to have these feelings into adolescence and so the physical effects of puberty can be very distressing and confusing. Young adults with gender dysphoria may try to relieve increasing feelings of gender anxiety by getting married and trying to live in their birth sex.

Causes

Little is known about the cause of gender dysphoria. There has been some research claiming to show that male and female brains show some difference in structure and that people with gender dysphoria have brains structured like those of their psychological rather than physical sex. However many believe gender dysphoria is caused by hormonal alteration of the nervous system of developing foetus.

Diagnosis

A G.P. or psychiatrist will refer a person thought to have gender dysphoria to a Gender Dysphoria Clinic.

A detailed history of gender development in childhood and puberty will be documented. Also, details of current life circumstances and general stability are noted and psychological assessments will be undertaken.

Treatment

Once referred to a gender dysphoria clinic, alternatives to sex reassignment are considered. Counselling is offered to the individual about the range of treatment options and their implications.

Many people will choose to live as the sex they are psychologically. This can involve counselling, speech therapy, electrolysis (removal of facial hair) or hormone treatments.

Sex reassignment surgery, commonly known as a sex-change operation, is given to people who are convinced that they are of the wrong anatomical sex. A detailed psychiatric and psychological evaluation is completed to ensure that the desire is genuine and permanent and has been present for at least two years.

The vast majority of transsexual people experience a successful outcome in terms of well-being and sexual function.

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