Being transgender should cease to be classified as a mental disorder, doctors say today.
Researchers set out proposals for changing World Health Organisation classifications after revealing research undertaken in Mexico City.
The researchers based in Mexico City interviewed 250 transgender adults aged 18 to 65 years, of whom 81% were male-to-female. The average age at which the participants reported they felt uncomfortable with their assigned gender category was 5.6 years.
The majority (74%) had used medication to alter their body, most commonly hormones, at an average age of 25 years. A high number (83%) felt distress related to gender identity during adolescence, such as discomfort with secondary sex characteristics. This distress was rated at an average of 80 on a scale of zero to 100.
Nine out of ten felt dysfunction related to their gender identity, in their interactions with family, friends, work or school. Social rejection and violence was widely experienced, and strongly linked to distress.
The World Health Organisation is currently revising the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10, and ICD-11 is due to be approved in May 2018.
The authors of this study, which appears in today’s (27 July) Lancet Psychiatry propose that transgender identity is reclassified from a mental disorder to a new proposed ICD-11 chapter on "Conditions Related to Sexual Health".
Professor Geoffrey Reed of the Centre for Global Mental Health Research, Mexico City, and colleagues believe this change would lead to fewer experiences of social rejection and violence, causing reduced distress and gender-based impairment.
The researchers add that similar studies to evaluate the place of the diagnosis within the International Classification of Diseases are being carried out in in Brazil, France, India, Lebanon and South Africa.
Robles, R. et al. Removing transgender identity from the classification of mental disorders: a Mexican field study for ICD-11. Lancet Psychiatry 27 July 2016 doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(16)30165-1 [abstract]
Leave a Reply