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Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to a mismatch between their gender identity—their personal sense of their own gender—and their sex assigned at birth. The term replaced the previous diagnostic label of gender identity disorder (GID) in 2013 with the release of the diagnostic manual DSM-5. The condition was renamed to remove the stigma associated with the term disorder.
The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, being founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being the University of Amsterdam (UvA). The literal translation of the Dutch name Vrije Universiteit is "Free University". "Free" refers to independence of the university from both the State and the Dutch Reformed Church. Both within and outside the university, the institution is commonly referred to as "the VU". Although founded as a private institution, the VU has received government funding on a parity basis with public universities since 1970. The university is located on a compact urban campus in the southern Buitenveldert neighbourhood of Amsterdam and adjacent to the modern Zuidas business district.
The Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is a medical provider with multiple hospitals in Nashville, Tennessee, as well as clinics and facilities throughout Middle Tennessee. VUMC is an independent non-profit organization, but maintains academic affiliations with Vanderbilt University. As of 2022, the health system had more than 3 million patient visits a year, a workforce of 40,000, and 1,709 licensed hospital beds.
Gender dysphoria in children (GD), also known as gender incongruence of childhood, is a formal diagnosis for children who experience significant discontent due to a mismatch between their assigned sex and gender identity. The diagnostic label gender identity disorder in children (GIDC) was used by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) until it was renamed gender dysphoria in children in 2013 with the release of the DSM-5. The diagnosis was renamed to remove the stigma associated with the term disorder.
Gender incongruence is the state of having a gender identity that does not correspond to one's sex assigned at birth. This is experienced by people who identify as transgender or transsexual, and often results in gender dysphoria. The causes of gender incongruence have been studied for decades.
VU University Medical Center Amsterdam is the university hospital affiliated with the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. It is rated one of the best academic medical centers in the country in terms of patient care and research. It is located next to Amsterdam's A10 ringway in the southwestern part of the city, next to the campus of the Vrije Universiteit and close to Schiphol airport.
Feminizing hormone therapy, also known as transfeminine hormone therapy, is hormone therapy and sex reassignment therapy to change the secondary sex characteristics of transgender people from masculine or androgynous to feminine. It is a common type of transgender hormone therapy and is used to treat transgender women and non-binary transfeminine individuals. Some, in particular intersex people but also some non-transgender people, take this form of therapy according to their personal needs and preferences.
Kenneth J. Zucker is an American-Canadian psychologist and sexologist. He was named editor-in-chief of Archives of Sexual Behavior in 2001. He was psychologist-in-chief at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and head of its Gender Identity Service until December 2015. Zucker is a professor in the departments of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Toronto.
Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance to help them align their body with their identified sex or gender.
Louis J. G. Gooren was a Dutch endocrinologist known for his work with transsexual and transgender people. He treated over 2,200 transsexual people and was one of the first physicians to treat transgender youth.
Transgender youth are children or adolescents who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth. Because transgender youth are usually dependent on their parents for care, shelter, financial support, and other needs, they differ in challenges compared to adults. According to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, appropriate care for transgender youth may include supportive mental health care, social transition, and/or puberty blockers, which delay puberty and the development of secondary sex characteristics to allow children more time to explore their gender identity.
Puberty blockers are medicines used to postpone puberty in children. The most commonly used puberty blockers are gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists, which suppress the production of sex hormones, including testosterone and estrogen. In addition to their use in treating precocious puberty, which involves puberty occurring at an unusually early age in children, puberty blockers are also used for transgender children to delay the development of unwanted sex characteristics, so as to allow transgender youth more time to explore their gender identity.
Transgender hormone therapy, also called hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT), is a form of hormone therapy in which sex hormones and other hormonal medications are administered to transgender or gender nonconforming individuals for the purpose of more closely aligning their secondary sexual characteristics with their gender identity. This form of hormone therapy is given as one of two types, based on whether the goal of treatment is masculinization or feminization:
Transgender health care includes the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of physical and mental health conditions, as well as sex reassignment therapies, for transgender individuals. A major component of transgender health care is gender-affirming care, the medical aspect of gender transition. Questions implicated in transgender health care include gender variance, sex reassignment therapy, health risks, and access to healthcare for trans people in different countries around the world.
Detransition is the cessation or reversal of a transgender identification or of gender transition, temporarily or permanently, through social, legal, and/or medical means. The term is distinct from the concept of 'regret', and the decision may be based on a shift in gender identity, or other reasons, such as health concerns, social pressure, or discrimination and stigma.
Controversy surrounds the concept of rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD), a scientifically unsupported proposed subtype of gender dysphoria said to be caused by peer influence and social contagion. ROGD has not been recognized by any major professional association as a valid mental health diagnosis, and use of the term has been discouraged by professional and academic institutions due to a lack of reputable scientific evidence, major methodological issues in existing research, and likelihood to cause harm by stigmatizing gender-affirming care.
A gender identity clinic is a type of specialist clinic providing services relating to transgender health care.
The European Network for the Investigation of Gender Incongruence (ENIGI) is a collaborative multicenter prospective cohort study on gender incongruence which started in 2010 and is being conducted by several transgender clinics in Europe. The clinics that have been involved in the initiative include the Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria (CEGD) at Amsterdam University Medical Centers, location VUmc in Amsterdam, Netherlands, the Center for Sexology and Gender at Ghent University Hospital in Ghent, Belgium, the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Hamburg, Germany, the Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet in Oslo, Norway, and the University Hospital of the University of Florence in Florence, Italy. The clinics in the ENIGI initiative developed a common study and treatment protocol and maintain a shared database. The study includes an endocrine part to evaluate the effects of transgender hormone therapy in transfeminine and transmasculine people.
Current research indicates that autistic people have higher rates of LGBT identities and feelings than the general population. A variety of explanations for this have been proposed, such as prenatal hormonal exposure, which has been linked with both sexual orientation, gender dysphoria and autism. Alternatively, autistic people may be less reliant on social norms and thus more open about their orientation or gender identity. A narrative review published in 2016 stated that while various hypotheses have been proposed for an association between autism and gender dysphoria, they lack strong evidence.
Amsterdam University Medical Center, often shortened to Amsterdam UMC, is a collective of two teaching hospitals in Amsterdam. Formed, in 2018, after the administrative merger of the city's two university medical centers: the Academic Medical Center and the VU University Medical Center.
References
- 1 2 Wiepjes CM, Nota NM, de Blok CJ, Klaver M, de Vries AL, Wensing-Kruger SA, de Jongh RT, Bouman MB, Steensma TD, Cohen-Kettenis P, Gooren LJ, Kreukels BP, den Heijer M (April 2018). "The Amsterdam Cohort of Gender Dysphoria Study (1972-2015): Trends in Prevalence, Treatment, and Regrets". J Sex Med. 15 (4): 582–590. doi:10.1016/j.jsxm.2018.01.016. PMID 29463477.
- 1 2 3 Een Halve Eeuw Transgenderzorg aan de VU [Half a Century of Transgender Care at the VU] (in Dutch). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Boom Uitgevers Amsterdam. 2020. ISBN 9789024437306. OCLC 1231709484.
- ↑ D. F. Swaab (7 January 2014). We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's. Random House Publishing Group. pp. 68–. ISBN 978-0-679-64437-8.