Chapter 5

Lecture Notes

According to the American Psychiatric Association, gender identity disorder (GID) consists of a strong and persistent cross-gender identification and persistent discomfort about one's assigned sex. This diagnosis is not made if the individual has a concurrent physical disorder of sexual development or intersex condition. Furthermore, there must be clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

The first step is usually psychotherapy, although psychotherapy is not always required for medical treatments. Traditional medical treatment for gender identity disorder has included three phases:

a real-life experience in the desired role

hormones of the desired gender

surgery to change the genitalia and other sex characteristics

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