Treatment decreases suicidality among individuals with gender dysphoria and leads to improved quality of life. Treatment options include psychosocial therapy, medical treatment for underlying depression and/or anxiety, hormonal treatment, and more than a dozen possible surgical procedures.
Hormone therapy for adults
It's important to remember that hormone therapy is only one of the treatments for gender dysphoria. Others include voice therapy and psychological support. The decision to have hormone therapy will be taken after a discussion between you and your clinic team.
1. Express your feelings - share your feelings in a notebook or blog, or express how you feel through an art, craft or music project. 2. Talk to someone who understands - talk to a supportive friend, find an online trans community you feel connection with, or speak to QLife (qlife.org.au to webchat or 1800 184 527).
Treatment options include: Counseling. Some people who experience gender dysphoria don't wish to pursue medical or surgical transition. For example, you may want to live and be recognized as your affirmed gender without using hormones or having gender affirmation surgery.
Left untreated, gender dysphoria can lead to severe emotional and psychological distress. Gender dysphoria can lead to other mental health challenges, including: Anxiety. Depression, sadness or a sense of loss.
Gender dysphoria might start in childhood and continue into adolescence and adulthood. Or you might have periods in which you no longer experience gender dysphoria. You might also experience gender dysphoria around the time of puberty or much later in life.
Gender dysphoria: A concept designated in the DSM-5-TR as clinically significant distress or impairment related to gender incongruence, which may include desire to change primary and/or secondary sex characteristics. Not all transgender or gender diverse people experience gender dysphoria.
Stage 3 treatment for gender dysphoria involves surgical interventions, such as chest reconstructive surgery (or 'top surgery'), phalloplasty and hysterectomy.
For gender dysphoria to be present, a patient must have had at least two DSM-5 criteria for at least six months, and it must cause significant distress to the patient. This generally includes any of the following: a significant difference between their own experienced gender and their secondary sexual characteristics.
Stage 1 consists of the administration of puberty suppressant hormones (“puberty blockers”). This treatment suppresses the onset of puberty and physical characteristics which may be incompatible with your gender identity. Stage 1 allows young people to explore their gender identity before beginning Stage 2.
The exact cause of gender dysphoria is unclear. Gender development is complex and there are still things that are not known or fully understood. Gender dysphoria is not related to sexual orientation. People with gender dysphoria may identify as straight, gay, lesbian or bisexual.
Gender dysphoria history: Of the 55 TM patients included in our study, 41 (75%) reported feeling GD for the first time by age 7, and 53 (96%) reported first experiencing GD by age 13 (Table 2).
Causes of gender dysphoria
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: additional hormones in the mother's system – possibly as a result of taking medication.
There is also growing evidence that childhood abuse, neglect, maltreatment, and physical or sexual abuse may be associated with GD. Individuals reporting higher body dissatisfaction and GD have a worse prognosis in terms of mental health.
Gender dysphoria can be lessened by supportive environments and knowledge about treatment to reduce the difference between your inner gender identity and sex assigned at birth.
What does dysphoria feel like? Gender dysphoria can feel different for everyone. It can manifest as distress, depression, anxiety, restlessness or unhappiness. It might feel like anger or sadness, or feeling slighted or negative about your body, or like there are parts of you missing.
It was traditionally thought to be a psychiatric condition meaning a mental ailment. Now there is evidence that the disease may not have origins in the brain alone. Studies suggest that gender dysphoria may have biological causes associated with the development of gender identity before birth.
A gender dysphoria test is a set of psychological questions to determine whether you have gender dysphoria. The gender therapist will talk to you about your symptoms, how long they've been going on for if there are any related complications such as depression or anxiety, and other possible causes for these feelings.
A recent study investigated the volume of grey matter in individuals with GD and found that they had a smaller volume in the left posterior superior hemisphere of the cerebellum compared to male controls and a smaller volume of the right inferior orbitofrontal cortex compared to female controls.
I recommend that you start with a talk where you respectfully and lovingly let your daughter know how you feel about her gender identity and what your concerns are for her. You can also let her know what you are comfortable doing in support of her and what you are not.
CONCLUSION: Most children grow out of their gender dysphoria as they reach adolescence. Social transitions and/or puberty blockers are frequently used to ameliorate symptoms in these children.
Various types of dysphoria include rejection sensitive dysphoria, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and gender dysphoria.