gender identity disorder

noun

: gender dysphoria

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

Peggy Cohen-Kettenis, a Dutch clinical psychologist specializing in children, began receiving referrals of teenagers who were experiencing gender dysphoria (then called gender identity disorder). —New York Times, 15 June 2022

That was a time when some insurance plans considered a prior diagnosis of gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder to be a preexisting condition. —Endia Fontanez, The Arizona Republic, 23 Dec. 2020

But the medical community used other terms in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, known as the DSM, to pathologize gender nonconformity, including transsexualism and gender identity disorder. —Emanuella Grinberg, CNN, 31 May 2018

Word History

First Known Use

1978, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

gender identity disorder

noun

: gender dysphoria

The main symptoms of gender identity disorder include not just a strong wish to be the opposite sex and unhappiness about one's actual sex, but also distress about this predicament that is so severe it interferes with the child's functioning.

—Daniel Goleman, The New York Times

Manifestations of gender identity disorder range from simply living as a member of the opposite sex to partial or maximal physical adaptation through hormonal and surgical treatment.

—Louis J. Gooren, The New England Journal of Medicine