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Gender Dysphoria

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Synonyms

Gender identity disorder; Gender incongruence; Transsexualism

Definition

Gender dysphoria refers to a person’s discontent and distress with regard to the gender that they were assigned to at birth.

Introduction

As a diagnostic term, gender dysphoria was introduced in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association 2013). It replaced prior diagnostic labels, such as gender identity disorder and transsexualism.

As a diagnosis, the symptoms must be accompanied by clinically significant distress and/or impairment. It is a more narrow construct than terms such as “transgender,” “gender variance,” or “gender nonconformity.”

Phenomenology

Gender dysphoria can have either an early onset (in childhood) or a late onset (in adolescence or adulthood). In the early-onset form, children exhibit a range of stereotypical gender-typed behaviors associated with the other sex (e.g., in peer preferences, toys and activity interests,...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Child & Adolescent Mental Health Care, Children’s Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre, London, ON, Canada

    Devita Singh

  2. Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Kenneth J. Zucker

  3. Department of Psychology, Western University, London, ON, Canada

    Devita Singh

Authors
  1. Devita Singh
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  2. Kenneth J. Zucker
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Devita Singh .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Division of Psychology, School of Social and Health Sciences, Abertay University, Dundee, UK

    Christopher D. Watkins

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Singh, D., Zucker, K.J. (2017). Gender Dysphoria. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3398-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3398-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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