User:Katewun/Gender dysphoria

Symptoms of GD in children include preferences for opposite sex-typical toys, games, activities, or playmates as well as a great dislike of their own genitalia. Some children may also experience social isolation from their peers, anxiety, loneliness, and depression. In adolescents and adults, symptoms include the desire to be and to be treated as a different gender. Adults with GD are at increased risk for stress, isolation, anxiety, depression, poor self-esteem, and suicide. Transgender people are also at heightened risk for eating disorders and substance abuse. According to the American Psychiatric Association (added link), those who experience gender dysphoria later in life "often report having secretly hidden their gender dysphoric feelings from others when they were younger". In its position statement published December 2020, the Endocrine Society stated that there is durable evidence for a biological underpinning to gender identity and that pubertal suppression, hormone therapy, and medically indicated surgery are effective and relatively safe when monitored appropriately and have been established as the standard of care. They noted a decrease in suicidal ideation among youth who have access to gender-affirming care and comparable levels of depression to cisgender peers among socially transitioned pre-pubertal youth. In its 2017 guideline on treating those with gender dysphoria, it recommends puberty blockers be started when the child has started puberty (Tanner Stage 2 for breast or genital development) and cross-sex hormones be started at 16, though they note "there may be compelling reasons to initiate sex hormone treatment prior to the age of 16 years in some adolescents with GD/gender incongruence". They recommend a multidisciplinary team of medical and mental health professionals manage the treatment for those under 18 and (changed from "They also.") recommend "monitoring clinical pubertal development every 3 to 6 months and laboratory parameters every 6 to 12 months during sex hormone treatment". Ashley's stance that gender euphoria does not need to be preceded by a clinical diagnosis of gender dysphoria, and that gender euphoria is complex, is echoed by Elliot Tebbe and Stephanie Budge in their 2022 Nature Reviews Psychology article, in which they write, "Gender euphoria is not merely the absence of gender dysphoria, but rather a conglomeration of positive emotions and subjective well-being in response to being affirmed in one’s gender."