Sex reassignment therapy

Sex reassignment therapy is the medical aspect of gender transitioning, that is, modifying one's characteristics to better suit one's gender identity. It can consist of hormone therapy to modify secondary sex characteristics, sex reassignment surgery to alter primary sex characteristics, and other procedures altering appearance, including permanent hair removal for trans women. Sex reassignment therapy is the medical aspect of gender transitioning, that is, modifying one's characteristics to better suit one's gender identity. It can consist of hormone therapy to modify secondary sex characteristics, sex reassignment surgery to alter primary sex characteristics, and other procedures altering appearance, including permanent hair removal for trans women. In appropriately evaluated cases of severe gender dysphoria, sex reassignment therapy is often the best when standards of care are followed.:1570:2108 There is academic concern over the low quality of the evidence supporting the efficacy of sex reassignment therapy as treatment for gender dysphoria, but more robust studies are impractical to carry out;:22 as well, there exists a broad clinical consensus, supplementing the academic research, that supports the effectiveness in terms of subjective improvement of sex reassignment therapy in appropriately selected patients.:2–3 Treatment of gender dysphoria does not involve attempting to correct the patient's gender identity, but to help the patient adapt.:1568 Major health organizations in the United States and UK have issued affirmative statements supporting sex reassignment therapy as comprising medically necessary treatments in certain appropriately evaluated cases. In current medical practice, a diagnosis is required for sex reassignment therapy. In the International Classification of Diseases the diagnosis is known as transsexualism (). The US Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) names it gender dysphoria (in version 5). While the diagnosis is a requirement for determining medical necessity of sex reassignment therapy, some people who are validly diagnosed have no desire for all or some parts of sex reassignment therapy, particularly genital reassignment surgery, and/or are not appropriate candidates for such treatment. The general standard for diagnosing, as well as treating, gender dysphoria is outlined in the WPATH Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming People. As of February 2014, the most recent version of the standards is Version 7. According to the standards of care, 'gender dysphoria refers to discomfort or distress that is caused by a discrepancy between a person’s gender identity and that person’s sex assigned at birth (and the associated gender role and/or primary and secondary sex characteristics)... Only some gender-nonconforming people experience gender dysphoria at some point in their lives'. Gender nonconformity is not the same as gender dysphoria; nonconformity, according to the standards of care, is not a pathology and does not require medical treatment.