Why was gender dysphoria changed from being a mental illness?

[LittleWhingingWoman]

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

But I would imagine that most people still see it as a mental illness - what qualifies it not to be?

Political lobbying.

The fact that's been subsumed into some glitterspecial category of "trans" with an ideological basis in magical thinking.

Anorexia is also classified as a weight disorder now, btw.

@Ereshkigalangcleg

Political lobbying.

Agreed. Once something is a human rights issue it is much harder to point out clashes with existing rights or stuff such as the multiple and different reasons why people actually transition.

@NecessaryScene

Anorexia is also classified as a weight disorder now, btw.

Is it? That's worrying.

Anorexia is also classified as a weight disorder now, btw.

Surely the weight issue is a secondary issue, like malnourishment, caused by the mental health issue?

Is it? That's worrying.

I hope not. That was an attempt at dark humour.

I'll stand down!

(Something must have screwed up my humour circuitry within the last 36 hours.)

I don't think I'd see genuine dysphoria as an 'illness' per se.
More like a type of neurodiversity maybe?

It's difficult to know how to class it, but I think it's a psychological issue and I'm not convinced enough research has been done into therapies other than transitioning.

Something must have screwed up my humour circuitry within the last 36 hours.)

You suckered me too!

@ErrolTheDragon

I don't think I'd see genuine dysphoria as an 'illness' per se. More like a type of neurodiversity maybe?

The DSM doesn't list illnesses it lists diversities. Gender dysphoria is still listed. Anorexia is listed, ADHD, Autism, paraphilias, phobias etc.

A mental health problem doesn't need to be stigmatized as an illness

The NHS have removed gender dysphoria but the DSM hasn't so no idea what's happening there.

@ErrolTheDragon

I don't think I'd see genuine dysphoria as an 'illness' per se. More like a type of neurodiversity maybe?

I'm autistic and I don't see the similarity at all. There's no imagining I am anything else. I see it being more like anorexia - it's an inaccurate perception of reality.

To remove the gatekeeping that prevented cross dressers and AGP'S from getting a GRC.

1. to make the T appear to align with the LGB (much harder if three are sexualities and one is a mental health issue).

2. to pave the way for unrestricted affirmative treatment. If it is a mental health condition/disorder/illness, that leaves the door open for treatment rather than affirmation (we don’t affirm anorexics or people with body integrity identify disorder)

3. to decouple obtaining a GRC from any kind of objective diagnosis by reference to specific diagnostic criteria, of a specified condition.

When Boris and others talk about trans people and say things like there must be "kindness etc" this sounds like it comes from pity because it's still seen as mental illness by most people. How else can it be explained that someone thinks they are born in the wrong body?

The NHS site says that gender dysphoria isn't a mental illness, but they don't say what it is.

It must be some sort of illness or medical condition. Why else would it need specialist treatment?

It says Some people with gender dysphoria, but not all, may want to use hormones and sometimes surgery to express their gender identity.

So that's similar to some people wanting to use cosmetic surgery to change their appearance. Fine. But it shouldn't be paid for by the NHS and children should not be given this treatment.

@Whatsnewpussyhat

To remove the gatekeeping that prevented cross dressers and AGP'S from getting a GRC.

This.

Historically men with AGP were not eligible for hormones, because the NHS weren't about to start financing a fetish.

But Trojan horsing it onto LGB made it an issue of civil rights.

So now men with AGP don't want it stigmatised, but they do want their gender 'euphoria' supported by treatment in the shape of hormones.

So they want the treatment, but they don't want the label.

This is why none of it makes any sense. The logic fails just keep happening when you realise that cross dressing has become an issue of civil rights by aligning itself with the LGB, whilst at the same time requiring drugs from the NHS.

Agree with pp that none of it makes sense. In other situations where a person holds beliefs that are clearly not true ( thinking they are Napoleon or Joan of Arc) we can say we understand that they feel what they feel, but that the rest of the world will not see it in the same way. It is doing them no service to act like it is true. Once GD was taken off the list for mental disorders there is no reason objectively to provide any treatment. However children’s and young people’s mental health issues should be taken very seriously indeed as long as it’s not the current Affirmation at all costs.

Having functioning parts of one’s anatomy unnecessarily removed seems fairly pathological tbh.
No, I’m mincing my words; it is pathological to the healthy function of the human organism to have important parts of the glandular system removed, and a psychological or psychiatric condition that would compel one to do this I most certainly an illness.

Agree. Wanting to remove healthy body parts can't be anything but a mh condition.

AGP's generally don't remove any body parts do they generally?

@Quitso

Agree. Wanting to remove healthy body parts can't be anything but a mh condition.

AGP's generally don't remove any body parts do they generally?

No they don't especially that extra special body part but they do have add-ons and require other interventions which of course they want the tax payer to fund hence the removal of the need for a diagnosis of an mh condition.

Is it not disordered thinking? I think that thinking you're a different biological sex and expecting everyone else to go along with that as if it's fact is pretty gosh darn disordered

@Quitso

Agree. Wanting to remove healthy body parts can't be anything but a mh condition.

AGP's generally don't remove any body parts do they generally?

Well, I think this is an obstacle to full understanding of the current meaning of transsexual(ity/ism). Speaking from my own demographic (male, 40’s), transsexual always meant a (almost always homosexual) man who had undergone the removal of is genitalia and possibly/presumably subsequent hormone treatment and lived entirely as a woman. Men who merely dressed as women were known as transvestites, whether they did that on a permanent basis and irrespective of their sexual orientation. So I think there are a lot of people out there thinking “what’s the fuss?” because they don’t realise that “transsexual” now also covers someone who, in old money, would once have been called a transvestite. Are transvestites mentally ill? In my opinion no, and nor should their personal eccentricity or kink alter their status in relation to their legal sex.

(And before I get rinsed let me add the caveat that I, personally, do not believe that post-op transsexuals should have the automatic right to women’s spaces/sport.)