Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES) and Ghent University, Belgium
Using Science and Medicine to Serve Gender Dysphoric and Transsexual People
PROFESSOR PETRA DE SUTTER, MD, PhD
Abstract of
Presentation at Manchester Metropolitan University
12 September 2004
Present definitions of gender dysphoria and transsexualism as forms of mental illness, published by the World Health Organisation and the American Psychiatric Association, disempower those so categorised. Attitudes and behaviour among too many clinicians tend to be insensitive to the legitimate concerns of the people affected by these conditions. Some clinicians use the terms "delusional" or "fantasising". Treatment regimes are too often arbitrary, rigid and even punitive. The stigma of mental illness also generates misunderstanding and discrimination in society generally.
Yet, the robust scientific data now available does not support the mental illness hypothesis. Rather, it indicates that gender dysphoria and transsexualism arise from the brain structure determined during the fetal stage of development. It is therefore timely to revise the definitions. However, it is essential to express the new definitions as medical conditions that may properly be treated under the National Health Service Act (1977).
It is also necessary to modify the current approach to medical treatment. Purchasing guidelines for commissioners of health services, good practice guidelines for clinicians and the medical information provided to gender dysphoric and transsexual people should acknowledge that all service users, including Gillick competent adolescents, have substantial rights to determine their own medical treatment.
Click here for a list of the references upon which this presentation was based.