[Approaches to people with gender dysphoria: from the Italian psychiatric model to the emergent model based on informed consent]

Crapanzano, Andrea

Primo

;Carpiniello, Bernardo

Secondo

;Pinna, Federica

Ultimo

2021-01-01

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Abstract

In recent years, the transgender community has received an unprecedented amount of attention from both the media and the scientific community. The increase in referrals to clinics specializing in therapies aimed at affirming transgender people's identity, the spread of these clinics around the world, the increased awareness by transgender people of the different therapeutic options and procedures available, the depathologization by the psychiatric world of this gender identity and the greater presence of transgender people in the media are just some factors that have contributed to an increased awareness of this complex reality. In this article, after providing a definition of some key concepts for understanding the complexity of the transgender world, the authors will describe the debate that exists in the scientific community and in the transgender world itself regarding the controversial diagnosis of gender dysphoria. Several possible transition paths that arise from this debate and consequent alignment with the different and contradictory conclusions that followed will be presented. In particular, a possible transition path will be presented based on the medical-psychiatric model closely related to the diagnosis of gender dysphoria (Italian model) and a model that is developing in some parts of the United States based on informed consent and the non-need for diagnosis of gender dysphoria in order to access the transition path.