| > The issue with categorizing gender dysphoria as a mental illness is no different than categorizing homosexuality as a mental illness. There is a very big difference: a homosexual person is not depressed and inhibited in functioning per sē, and this is why gender identity incongruence absent any gender dysphoria is not classified as an illness. It is also why depression caused by homosexuality is classified as a mental illness, it simply has no special name in this respect. > The gender dysphoria is a problem derived from what is effectively a birth defect. If someone had a malformed limb and because this has clear impediments in their life in social and physical terms, they experience depression with their physical condition. We don’t say “oh, your body dysmorphia is a mental illness, you just need therapy”, as not only is that a shit take, but now prosthetics are more viable and advanced. What does that have to do with anything? The recommended medical treatment for gender dysphoria is not based on mental therapies, but physical surgeries and hormonal therapies, so I'm not quite sure what you are attempting to imply here. The simple empirical finding finding has been that genital confirmation surgeries and hormonal therapies have been far more effective at reducing the symptoms of gender dysphoria than any mental talk therapy has ever had, just as with many of depression that are caused by chemical abnormalities in the brain, drugs that remove that abnormality have been found far more effective than talk therapy. Talk therapy is not a very common remedy that psychiatrists resort to. — it works only for a very select few conditions. |
You would in fact be wrong, as therapy is absolutely a part of the comprehensive standard of care recommended by WPATH, and is required by practically every surgeon willing to perform any transgender related surgery.
> There is a very big difference: a homosexual person is not depressed and inhibited in functioning per sē, and this is why gender identity incongruence absent any gender dysphoria is not classified as an illness.
You’re quite close to recognizing the crucial distinction: gender dysphoria is a grouping of symptoms related to a gender incongruence, and thus itself is realistically just a poor evaluation of the condition of transgender individuals’ reality — of course they experience dysphoria, gender incongruence can do that. So we treat the problem, not a symptom. We realized that homosexuality wasn’t a mental illness because their suffering was a byproduct of society’s view of their innate sexuality, and reasonably removed the diagnosis. Likewise this will happen (and is happening) with gender dysphoria.