The life choices and sexual orientation of transgender people is not a mental disorder, according to a new study.
This study has urged the World Health Organization to drop transgender identity from its list of diseases and claims violence and social rejection are the cause of mental distress and impairment among transgender people, not their gender identity.
The study has beenpublished in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry and was presented in Mexico on Thursday.
“If it’s not a disease now, then it never was. This should be clear,” Eduardo Madrigal, president of the Mexican Association of Psychiatry, said at a news conference.
The field study was conducted between April and August 2014 among 250 transgender adults who were receiving health care services at the Condesa Specialized Clinic in Mexico City.
The group went through an interview which found that 83% had experience distress over their gender identity during adolescence.
The study will be conducted in Brazil, France, India, Lebanon and South Africa and the results of the same will be presented at the 11th revision in 2018 of the WHO’s International Classification of Diseases, a diagnostic tool for health care providers around the world.
“This reclassification will not only promote discussions for new health policies for the trans community to have better access to health services, but it will also help to reduce the stigma and rejection that they are victims of,” said Ana Fresan, one of the study’s authors.
(With Agency inputs)
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