In principle, there are a large number of gender variants. Mostly during childhood, those affected feel that they are not comfortable in their socially assigned gender identity. For example, a boy who is male in terms of his physical gender feels like a girl. Likewise, despite her biological sex, a girl may feel that she is a boy in terms of her psyche. There are also people who do not simply feel like women or men, but identify as non-binary people. If a person continues to suffer from this, it is called gender dysphoria. The World Health Organization describes “transsexualism” as a gender identity disorder and defines it as the desire to belong to the opposite sex and thus be recognized as such. The fact that transidentity is still classified as a medical condition in medical diagnosis catalogs is not in keeping with the times.
Overview: What is gender dysphoria?
Transidentity or gender dysphoria describes a naturally occurring phenomenon in which the gender identity does not match the gender category assigned at birth and therefore cannot be integrated.
As a discourse, trans identity takes up the body-soul dualism and can take a wide variety of forms. So there is not just one single trans identity, but strictly speaking as many as there are people affected. Taking this idea further, it can be assumed that even every person has their own “transgender threshold” and that it is actually a widespread phenomenon, which, however, rarely leads to action-relevant measures or psychological or physical suffering when viewed as a whole.
Transgender people are born with a biological sex to which they are assigned a physical sex that they do not perceive as psychologically corresponding to them in the course of their development. In contrast to intersexuality, where there are biological variations with regard to the chromosome set and sexual organs, these biological variations are not present in transidentity, but the physical can still be experienced as wrong and painful. Transidentity is an incongruence of body and soul in relation to gender identity. Transgender people do not experience their physical gender assignment as their own. With their inner gender personality, they live in the wrong biological body, so to speak.
Gender dysphoria - diagnosis
It is not appropriate to speak of a diagnosis for a phenomenon that has no disease value per se and is also not a disease. Nevertheless, it is important for those affected to seek medical advice and support. Transidentity causes numerous stressful difficulties in individual and social life. You can receive good medical and psychotherapeutic support in your particular life situation.
A diagnosis is a prerequisite for treatment to be covered by health insurance and therefore for medical measures to be carried out at the expense of the insurance company. In addition to the rather old-fashioned term “transsexualism”, the medical diagnostic terms are “gender incongruence” and “gender dysphoria”. Since transidentity is about your personal feelings, the diagnosis can only be based on personal, trusting discussions in which you describe your development history, your life situation and your suffering.
Self-help groups
The exchange with people who are affected by the same disease can be a great support in coping with the disease. Advice on finding a suitable self-help group is available from Selbsthilfe Zürich. Self-Help Zurich and the University Hospital Zurich are cooperation partners in the national project “Health literacy thanks to self-help-friendly hospitals”.
Interdisciplinary treatment team
At the University Hospital Zurich, an interdisciplinary gender dysphoria team is responsible for supporting and treating people with gender identity incongruence. We coordinate and organize medical transition support for gender-dysphoric people according to their individual needs.
Transidentity - treatment and therapy
In addition to psychiatric support, you will also receive comprehensive information about hormonal treatment, possible surgical steps and inpatient stays as well as potential risks. The final step towards transition (gender reassignment surgery) also requires comprehensive information and support.
