gender dysphoria

noun

: a distressed state arising from conflict between a person's gender identity and the sex the person was identified as having at birth

also : a condition marked by such distress

Examples of gender dysphoria in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Utah: In January 2023, Governor Spencer Cox signed a bill that prohibits transgender surgery for youth and disallows hormone treatments for minors who have not yet been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. —Danielle Marie Holland, Parents, 19 Apr. 2024

While many major medical organizations recommend hormone treatments and other health care for minors with gender dysphoria, conservatives in states around the country have pushed to ban the care. —Ian Max Stevenson, Idaho Statesman, 16 Apr. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1973, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

gender dysphoria

noun

: a distressed state arising from conflict between a person's gender identity and the sex the person was identified as having at birth

Nonbinary people may or may not use medical approaches to align their identities and physical bodies, and, like transgender people, some nonbinary people experience gender dysphoria while others do not.

—Elizabeth Kukura, Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics

also : a condition marked by such distress

Scientists have no conclusive explanation for what causes some people to feel dissonance between their gender identity and aspects of their anatomy. In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association updated its manual, replacing the term "gender identity disorder," with one that is less stigmatizing, "gender dysphoria."

—The New York Times

compare gender euphoria