{"id":16751,"date":"2023-06-16T12:42:59","date_gmt":"2023-06-16T17:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/last-drum.flywheelsites.com\/?p=16751"},"modified":"2024-11-22T08:34:54","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T13:34:54","slug":"gender-discomfort-and-autism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/autism.org\/gender-discomfort-and-autism\/","title":{"rendered":"Gender Discomfort and Autism"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“I think society has an expectation where you have to be male or female, or you can be somewhere in between […]. But they don’t get that, actually, there are many genders and finding the one that is who you are can be a bit of work.”<\/i><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Gender is how we feel about and relate to the broader culture\u2019s experiences of femininity and masculinity. Sex, on the other hand, is a biological descriptive based on chromosomes and genitals. A person\u2019s biological sex may not correspond with their gender identity. Gender diversity is a term used to describe the range of gender identities beyond the classic Western binary understanding. Individuals who do not identify as female or male are often labeled as transgender, an umbrella term that includes gender identities like nonbinary, gender fluid, and two-spirited (specifically related to some North American Indigenous peoples). However, in reality, the range of gender identifications is unlimited. Therefore, by limiting gender to binary terms, we fail to accommodate the true extent of human existence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

What is Gender Discomfort?<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n

Gender discomfort (GDC) is any unease or distress associated with an individual\u2019s assigned gender. GDC encompasses all forms of discomfort with one\u2019s gender. Gender Dysphoria is a medical term used to describe this experience. The DSM 5 defines Gender Dysphoria (GD) as a \u201cmarked incongruence between [an individual\u2019s] experienced or expressed gender and the one they were assigned at birth (2013). Specifically, Gender discomfort or dysphoria describes the emotional turmoil and distress experienced due to such incongruence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was certainly gender discomfort […] but I didn’t have the language for that. So when I did read about gender dysphoria, I’d have people say to me, \u2018But you’re not unhappy, you’re not at risk of suicide, you’re not hurting yourself, you’re not switched off from all things female.\u2019 [I] loved having my babies, I loved breastfeeding, I loved being a mum. And that made it quite difficult for the people to understand […] I wasn’t miserable. I just wasn’t home. And I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t home.\u201d<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>

GDC is not a mental health disorder, nor are mental health conditions inherent to experiencing GDC. However, the discomfort associated with GDC often contributes to various mental health difficulties, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and suicidality. Mental health conditions associated with GDC arise from the societal and cultural contexts, lack of acceptance, and discrimination that gender-diverse individuals frequently face (Dhejne et al., 2016; Cleveland Clinic, 2021; Pinto et al., 2022). Referrals for GD have increased globally in recent years, likely as a result of wider acceptance and changes in diagnostic criteria (Judge et al., 2014; Kaltiala et al., 2020; Wiepjes et al.,2018; Wattel et al., 2022).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Emotional distress from GDC can present in many ways. Common symptoms in adults include a strong desire to be and be treated as another gender, to have the sexual anatomy of another gender, to rid oneself of their sexual anatomy, and a firm conviction that one has the typical feelings of another gender. In children, these symptoms may manifest as a strong preference for clothes of another gender, cross-gender roles in make-believe play, a disdain for and refusal to accept the physical attributes of their body (i.e., ignoring menstruation and hygiene), toys and games associated with another gender, playmates of another gender, and a strong desire for their physical sex characteristics to match their experienced gender (Boston Children\u2019s Hospital, 2023; Frank, 2020).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

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