Wanting to be opposite gender Vs not wanting to be birth gender.

I can imagine someone who hates being their birth gender but has no particular desire to be the opposite gender. I can imagine someone who is ambivalent about their birth gender but really strongly wants to be the opposite gender. I can imagine various points between these extremes.

What is your opinion on how important these two scales of feeling are against each other?

How does the medical profession assess whether people are in a genuine need for help? In otherwords if someone wants to be the opposite gender but doesn't feel the need to do something drastic if they remain their birth gender, does the medical profession think they should just leave them be and disregard their desire? If so, at what point do they become gender dysphoric? If they become slightly irritable when going to the toilet? If they feel slightly uncomfortable when looking at themselves in the mirror? If they are mildly annoyed that their hands are the wrong size? Or is it neccessary to have extreme feeling of being in the wrong body before being deemed worthy of help? Or does the medical profession trust in the persons own conviction of whether they would benefit from transition?

According to the current edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, in order to attract a diagnosis of gender identity disorder "The [gender] disturbance [must] cause[s] clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning."

So if GID isn't making you ill, socially debilitated or unemployable, then the DSM says you shouldn't get the diagnosis. But who's to say what is "clinically significant? The question goes to the heart of the current debate over the validity of DSM categories.

it all comes down to needs and desires

a person may desire smaller feet - they dont NEED smaller feet

a transsexual may NEED surgery but only desire some other aspect of their lie changed

i desire to win the lottery i will survive if i dont

people need food water and shelter they only desire fast cars and swimming pools

so make two columns needs and desires and when you see the doc only concentrate on the needs x

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Man [...] must count no one but himself; that he is alone, abandoned on earth in the midst of his infinite responsibilities, without help, with no other aim than the one he sets himself, with no other destiny than the one he forges for himself on this earth." (Jean Paul Sartre, 1943)

Thanks for the replies so far. It might have come across that I'm asking specifically about me or that I have stated where I lie on those two scales, but it's not the case in this thread I'm trying to stop whining about me all over the place and confine that to my shiney new blog

I was hoping to stimulate a general debate on people opinions of euphoria Vs dysphoria, both in terms of the medical profession's position (I imagine NHS and private have different angles) and also in a more philosophical way - ignoring the practicalities of actually doing something in this world and just thinking about an ideal world where it's no problem to be 'allowed' to transition, if people could just be what they want to be. Hmm I just re-read that and it doesn't make as much sense as what I hoped. Oh well *clicks post button*.

The way I see it, gender dysphoria is ultimately, always self-diagnosed. Given that it is self-diagnosed, I don't see how it is possible to need treatment for it without also wanting treatment for it.

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The boobs are just a set of metaphors.

how do you mean stella? aren't they, essentially apart from certain semantics, pretty much the same thing when it boils down to it? or is it the placement of the word 'disorder' that causes your point?

I fail to see anything wrong with my gender identity

Male seems pretty acceptable

My dictionary has dysphoria as "morbid restlessness" and "impatience under affliction" which certainly account for my state of mind as my brain experiences the presence of certain physical characteristics where it expects to find others.

The use of the word disorder which has meanings such as "confusion" and "malfunction of the body" and its application in the phrase "gender identity disorder" is at best vague. It also smacks of laziness; if in doubt, we'll call it a disorder.

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The Daily Turnout - King of the Throne Room

in simple terms 'dis' order is unordered our of sync out of alignment

so in this way many trans people are disordered and become ordered through social permissions and acceptance to be themselves without fear of attack violence or guilt

or with corrective surgeries dependent on their own specific needs

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Man [...] must count no one but himself; that he is alone, abandoned on earth in the midst of his infinite responsibilities, without help, with no other aim than the one he sets himself, with no other destiny than the one he forges for himself on this earth." (Jean Paul Sartre, 1943)

Gender variance is part of the natural order. Gender dysphoria is an affliction that deserves the attention of the medical profession. Often enough, medical intervention will relieve the distress that it causes.

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The Daily Turnout - King of the Throne Room