Gender Dysphoria: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment

Question 1 

Gender Dysphoria, also known as a Sexual Identity Disorder is a disorder that is characterized by incongruence between the person’s biological sex assigned at birth, and the gender one expresses or experiences. The disorder in children is characterized by a strong desire to be of different gender, wearing clothes of different gender, and refusal to be called or identified with one’s sex. The psychological issues that may arise from children suffering from this disorder are anxiety and distress, and the child feels discriminated against, leading to minority stress. This may affect a child’s socialization ability and low self-esteem, which leads to low performance in studies and other personal tasks. 

Question 2 

For one to conclude that a child has gender dysphoria, the child must have been experiencing recognizable distress for at least six months or more coupled with any or all of the following characteristics: an intense and felt craving to be of the opposite gender and continuously insisting on being identified with the other gender, wearing clothes of the other gender, playing roles of the other gender in plays, wanting to always associate with the opposite gender, desiring to have a phenotype of the opposite gender and hating their physical anatomy (Butler et al., 2018). These characteristics help the caregivers and parents understand their children and conclude whether they have gender dysphoria or not and take necessary steps. 

Question 3 

Gender Dysphoria can be treated through gender-affirming hormonal therapy and surgery. There has been an issue of debate on whether children can be treated through hormonal therapy before the puberty stage over the years (Garg et al., 2018). Therapy can also help in reducing gender dysphoria. This involved counseling by parents and therapists to children to make them feel comfortable with their phenotype. The therapy is useful because it takes into account the familial factors that may have led to the disorder and encouraged the child to play and associate with their assigned gender. Puberty blockers can also be used. This can be done by administering cross-sex hormones, that is, administering estrogen to male gender dysphoric children and testosterone to female gender dysphoric children. 

Question 4 

The cultural traditions and religion influence the health caregivers, therapists, and parents dealing with children with gender dysphoria. For example, in Iran, they tolerate transsexuals, but homosexuality is punishable by death (Meyer, 2017). Parents with children suffering from gender dysphoria may not disclose the information due to fear. This hinders treatment. Therefore, health caregivers need to consider people’s culture and religious doctrines before conducting any surgery on the children. 

References 

Butler, G.,De Graaf, N., Wren, B., & Carmichael, P. (2018). Assessment and support of children and adolescents with gender dysphoria. Archives of Disease in Childhood. (103) 7. 631-636. https://dx.doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2018-314992 

Grag, G., Elshimy, G., & Marwaha, R. (2020). Gender Dyphoria (Sexual Identity Disorders). StatPearls, Treasure Island. 

Meyer, B. (2017). Introduction to the special section on culture and variants of sex/gender: Bias and stigma. Archives of sexual behavior, (46), 337-339. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-016-0871-7 .