GENDER IDENTITY DISORDER

Gender Identity Disorder

Gender Identity Disorder

Definition

Gender identity disorder (GID) is a psychiatric diagnosis that mental health and medical professionals apply to people who were assigned one gender at birth and subsequently identify with another gender or who do not adhere to the gender role associated with their assigned gender. The GID diagnosis appears in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR), the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) most recent official listing of psychiatric disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).

Symptoms

As outlined in DSM-IV-TR, GID has two basic components that must be present for a diagnosis to be made: (1) There must be both a strong and a persistent cross-gender identification. (2) There must be evidence of persistent discomfort with one's assigned sex or a sense of inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex (Lev, A., 2004). The diagnostic text lists specific examples of these criteria as they may manifest in children and in adolescents or adults. The criteria also disallow a diagnosis if an intersex condition is present. The cross-gender identification or behaviors must also be accompanied by significant distress and impairment.

Causes

Gender identity development normally takes place during the first 2-3 years of childhood. As children progress developmentally into adolescence, they attain a sense of certainty about their gender and their gender roles. Developing a sense of gender identity is usually an unconscious process, while more conscious considerations are involved in developing gender role behaviours. Normally, the adolescent operates within a rather wide range of culturally acceptable gender role behaviours (Akhtar & Samuel, 1996 and Zucker & Bradley, 1995).

Statistics

Most children eventually outgrow gender identity disorder. About 75% of boys with gender identity disorder develop a homosexual or bisexual orientation by late adolescence or adulthood, but without continued feelings of transsexuality (Rottnek, M. (Ed.), 1999). Most ...