Gender Dysphoria Fact Sheet
October 9, 2024
Gender identity issues are complex in today’s culture. “Transgender” individuals refer to their “gender” as a sexual identity that is different than their biologic sex on the basis of an internal sense or feeling. Th is self identification differs from their biological sex, and it takes priority over their physical biology as recognized in their chromosomal DNA and innate physical sexual characteristics.
For thousands of years, this rare discordance between biologic sex and internal sense of sexual identity was viewed as the result of a deep psychological abnormality. Only in the last several decades has consideration been given to changing external sexual characteristics to align with a person’s internal sexual identity. Th is has been undertaken without any clear and reliable medical evidence that changing biologic appearance is the proper treatment for this sense of discordance, commonly referred to as gender dysphoria. Unfortunately, despite the lack of adequate medical evidence, the general medical community has accepted this approach to treating gender dysphoria, and they have also become insistent that this approach must be taken.