Heritability of gender dysphoria in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood

Abstract

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR; American Psychiatric Association, 2022) defines gender dysphoria as a condition wherein a person experiences a conflict between their personal sense of their own gender and their biological sex at birth. It may cause significant distress and/or impairment in their self-identity, social relationships, occupational, educational, or other critical spheres of functioning. Such people exhibit typical feelings and behaviors and a strong desire to be treated as the gender different from their biological sex. They may often express a strong dislike toward their biological sex anatomy. The previous term for gender dysphoria, gender identity disorder, was used in DSM-IV-TR but was changed in DSM-5 to remove the stigma associated with the term "disorder" and to focus on the clinical issue of dysphoria and not upon identity.