Is gender dysphoria considered a mental illness?

[ReluctantCamper]

I've had an offensively lightweight word salad of a reply from my MP. Among the 'I welcome progress against transphobic bullying' (this is the basic standard I would expect from a sentient human, so fucking what?) anodyne crap, is the statement ' I am also encouraged that gender dysphoria is no longer considered a mental illness'.

Is this true? Being so unhappy with your body that you are prepared to undergo treatment that may well remove much of your sexual function is not considered a mental illness? Really??? If it isn't how the hell do sufferers access therapy?

I need to construct a reply to him, but I'd like him to engage his brain and not take immediate offence so need to simmer down a bit before writing it!

The probably agp twat is a conservative!

If gender dysphoria is real (as far as I am concerned the jury is out regarding its existence i.e. I think it is a socially constructed syndrome) then ask your MP to explain why people with this "condition" seem to struggle with the most adverse mental health issues to the point of suicidality.

the ICD system call it a disorder

www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/gender-dysphoria/what-is-gender-dysphoria

Would certainly seem to be classified as a mental disorder under DSM 5.

Sorry... meant to type 'ICD 10 system'.

how the hell do sufferers access therapy?

My understanding is that therapy that seeks to alleviate gender dysphoria by questioning it rather than affirming it and signposting to medical intervention is now considered 'conversion therapy' and would get its practitioners deregistered or struck off.

It was considered a mental illness for many years. That's why it was (and still is via the granting of a Gender Recognition Certificate) assessed by psychologists and psychiatrists.

However, it has moved away from that to being a condition of unknown cause or causes that results in side effects that can be termed in need of mental health treatment.

Several countries have removed it as a mental illness officially and Britain is heading that way. The World Health Organisation is planning to declassify it this year I am told.

These are the basis of Theresa May saying it no longer is such a thing and wanting to remove doctors as gatekeepers from granting a Gender Recognition Certificate.

Cited as a reason why so many want self ID.

Personally I believe doctors need to be involved and mental health needs to be assessed as part of the process because whatever the cause (and there may be more than one, some of which do have causes in that area) it does have damaging effects on a person going through it that need to be addressed for their sake and societies.

I think they are confused!
Gender identity disorder has been abandoned as a diagnosis. Being trans isn’t considered to be a mental health problem in itself anymore.
Gender dysphoria is still considered a diagnosable illness. It relates to distress people experience in relation to their sexed bodies.

thank you for all the replies, they're very helpful. The letter read very much as a cobbled together 'fuck off you transphobe', so it doesn't surprise me in the slightest if it contains factual inaccuracies.

It’s got to be that they’re trying to demedicalise it so they don’t need to treat it. Either in a state supplied healthcare service, or an insurance based one. If gender dysphoria stops being a mental illness - which it clearly fucking is as it’s believing something that is clearly false -then there is no treatment for it. It’s such a scam to take away the medical side of it.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/gender-dysphoria/

end of 4th paragraph - the NHS no longer considers it to be a mental illness

Gender dysphoria is a form of body dysphoria IMO. No different from anorexia really.
I don't get why one is a mental illness, but not the other.

One of the 'trans rights' TRAs demand is the ability to access the 'healthcare' (hormones and procedures) they deem themselves to require. They're going to be pretty bloody disappointed if the demedicalisation of transgenderism means they won't get access to these any longer.

Interesting that the NHS page says 'gender dysphoria is a recognised medical condition'. Theresa May said in her virtue-signalling Pink News speech that 'being trans is not an illness'.

I wish the nodding doggies could agree what false facts they're nodding along to.

The WHO aren't removing it exactly, but draft guidelines look like it will be called [[https://icd.who.int/dev11/l-m/en#/http%3a%2f%2fid.who.int%2ficd%2fentity%2f411470068 gender incongruence" rather than gender dysphoria, and it'll be classed as a condition related to sexual health (alongside sexual dysfunction, etc.)

The draft definition doesn't look too bad as they don't discuss gender identity as fact, but unfortunately they do reference "assigned sex". The wording may try change, though:
Gender incongruence is characterized by a marked and persistent incongruence between an individual’s experienced gender and the assigned sex. Gender variant behaviour and preferences alone are not a basis for assigning the diagnoses in this group.

Clicky link (hopefully) icd.who.int/dev11/l-m/en#/http%3a%2f%2fid.who.int%2ficd%2fentity%2f411470068

A medical condition of what then, one has to ask?! Because all medical conditions relate to either a part of the body (or something broader like the CNS), or if not the body, then the mind. If it's not a mental condition, what is it, then - a liver condition? A gall bladder condition?

By saying 'it is not a mental illness', they reinforce that mental illness is considered something shameful.

yes, I'm very well aware that someone who I would guess (?) suffered from gender dysphoria has commented on this thread and I don't want to offend as I don't know enough about this.

BUT, I am just baffled that somebody who was so unhappy with a state of affairs that the majority of other people accept unquestioningly (i.e. having a male body or having a female body) that they'd totally turn their life upside down would not be considered to have a mental illness. I know that this term carries negative connotations but it shouldn't.

And if we don't accept it as a mental illness what the hell does that mean for treatment?

Gender identity disorder. Individuals who believe their biological gender doesn't match their gender identification will no longer be labeled with a disorder. Instead, if they seek psychiatric treatment, they can be labeled with "gender dysphoria."

The workgroup responsible for dealing with the hot-button issue considered a variety of other approaches, addressed later in this article. Ultimately they settled on a formal diagnosis potentially qualifying a patient for insurance-paid treatment if they want it but with a less pejorative name than "disorder."

As you can see from that much of thee work done on the DSM is with an eye to insurance companies paying for treatment.
www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/apa/32619
This article was written during the negotiation stage in 2012

They made much of the change from illness to disorder and then took another step to dysphoria. Now they want another better word because they do not all suffer dysphoria. Some simply suffer from aggrieved entitlement, while others are NPD.
The most alarming aspect is diagnosing children with depression as dysphoric and candidates for transitioning.

My understanding is that therapy that seeks to alleviate gender dysphoria by questioning it rather than affirming it and signposting to medical intervention is now considered 'conversion therapy' and would get its practitioners deregistered or struck off.

I’m just praying that amputation of healthy limbs on the NHS and demands for us all to “recognise” imagined paraplegia, don’t kick in until I’m long gone.

The lunatics have taken over the asylum.

I think care is needed around labelling someone mentally ill - as in my experience, it's the real victims that get this label whilst the Cluster B trolls use it as a disguise.

It's really important to focus on the anti-social, criminally threatening behaviour - why do a vocal minority of TRAs grab the headlines claiming to be the voice of Trans when most of them have not transitioned nor are stable for many years years in their new personna? Why is their criminal behaviour, only against women, condoned? Why are the voices of those who transitioned and don't believe they are women, therefore don't demand access to single sex spaces, ignored (the majority)? Why can't women speak about their legitimate concerns about the proposed legislative and past policy changes about self-id without being criminally threatened and stalked? Does he know that 86% of TIMs retain their penis…etc etc

Ask if he will have a meeting to discuss your concerns - at the HOC - or will he attend the next public one - and / or speak to the right David Davis...

Maybe we need to draft a template for a letter…..

I am also encouraged that gender dysphoria is no longer considered a mental illness'.
I wonder why he finds this encouraging? That seems an odd thing to say.

Lighting their fuses in front of the largest possible audience?

Well if it’s not a mental illness then on what basis can NHS treatment such as hormones and surgery be accessed? Surely that would render any such treatment totally unnecessary and cosmetic? It would be no different from me requesting Botox on the NHS just because i fancy it.