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Why Treating Gender Dysphoria with Hormone Therapy is a Bad Idea
Gender dysphoria is a psychological condition that stems from confusion regarding one’s gender. While sex is biological and gender conceptual, gender is essentially the psychological awareness and acceptance of one’s biological sex. A person who is gender dysphoric is confused on this matter. Conception of a third gender in one’s mind does not mean a third sex has developed. The misalignment between gender identification and sex can lead to mental illness and physical illness if hormonal therapy is introduced, puberty suppressed or other chemicals used to help the person alter his or her sense of sex so as to promote the gender identity.
Suicide ideation, attempts at suicide, depression, anxiety—all of these are short term affects of gender dysphoria (Delgado-Ruiz et al.). Individuals who engage in hormonal therapy to help themselves to transition to the gender with which they identify though with which they do not biologically align can have long term effects, such as loss of bone mineral density, hormone imbalance, and immune deficiency. Other outcomes include “crippling levels of depression and, in some instances, suicidal thoughts” (Ashford). As Ashford notes, “people who have had sex reassignment surgery are approximately 20 times more likely than the general population to die by suicide.” Yet, if gender dysphoria is not treated with hormone therapy, 80% of children who experience gender dysphoria eventually develop into adulthood and no longer feel any discomfort with their bodies; in other words, if left to allow their natural biology to develop on through puberty their gender dysphoria will gradually wane and dissipate (Ashford). Those who elect to have transgender operations, however, set themselves up for a lifetime of physical and mental health issues.
Works Cited
Ashford, B. “ The Ugly Truth About Sex Reassignment the Transgender Lobby Doesn’t Want You to Know.” Daily Signal, 2017. https://www.dailysignal.com/2017/10/30/ugly-truth-sex-reassignment-transgender-lobby-doesnt-want-know/
Delgado-Ruiz, Rafael, Patricia Swanson, and Georgios Romanos. \"Systematic Review of the Long-Term Effects of Transgender Hormone Therapy on Bone Markers and Bone Mineral Density and Their Potential Effects in Implant Therapy.\" Journal of clinical medicine 8.6 (2019): 784.
In addition, the researcher note that the relatively small sample size in their study did not allow separate genetic analyses for males and females (Coolidge et al.). Environmentalism (social influence). A recent study by Wallien and Cohen-Kettenis (2008) analyzed psychosexual outcomes of gender-dysphoric children at 16 years and older to determine childhood characteristics related to psychosexual outcomes based on various social influences that may be experienced during the timeframes studied.
Clinical Psychology and Gender Dysphoria Advancement of Clinical Psychology with Gender Dysphoria Clinical psychology is recognized as a psychology branch that deals with the assessment and treatment of abnormal behavior, mental illness, and psychiatric problems (Brennan, 2003). Clinical psychology integrates the science of psychology with treatment of complicated human problems, which makes it a challenging and rewarding field. American psychologist Lightner Witmer introduced the term in 1907. Witmer defined clinical psychology as
Review of a Peer-Reviewed Article The article by Kaltiala-Heino, Bergman, Tyolajarvi and Frisen (2018) examines the literature available on gender dysphoria (GD) and the need to better understand the phenomenon of adolescents seeking hormonal treatment as teens while having psychiatric comorbidity. Because of a lack of understanding of the role that GD plays in the current trend of requesting hormonal therapy, the authors of this article saw a need to consolidate
Bibliography Mouffak, Faycal; Gallarda, Thierry; Baup, Nicolas; Olie, Jean-Pierre; and Krebs, Marie-Odile (2007) Gender Identity Disorders and Bipolar Disorder Associated With the Ring Y Chromosome. American Journal Psychiatry 164:1122-1123 July 2007. Online available at http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/164/7/1122#R1647CHDJECID Childhood Gender-Identity Disorder Diagnosis Under Attack (2007) National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. NARTH. Leadership U. Online available at http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/narth/childhood.html Osborne, Duncan (2003) Voices - Identity Crisis. OUT magazine. Los Angeles, April 2003. Liberation Publications, Inc.
As a result Cuypere et al. conducted a study which evaluated the physical and sexual health of individuals that received reassignment surgery. The participants were 107 Dutch speaking participants that had the surgery between 1986 and 2001 (Cuypere et al. 2005). The results demonstrate that those participants going form Female-to-males had more problems establishing a secure relationship following the transition (Cuypere et al. 2005). In fact the study found that
They also offer the word of warning, however, that in being culturally loaded, this position may also be subject to future change. That is, where cultural perceptions of sexual and gender-orientation differences may actually regress, the risk of remedicalization of these conditions remains present. The article does point out that there remain a number of ideologically entrenched groups dedicated to the therapeutic treatment of homosexuality and gender-orientation differences as