Comments on: Transsexualism No Longer Viewed As A Mental Illness In France

By: Suzanna

Suzanna — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:52:35 +0000

Scientist have proven that gay men have an abnormal (for men) amount of female hormones, which in turn effects the neurological pathways. This is not a mental illness. And is true when a man says he is a woman trapped in a man’s body. I think this labelling is appalling, we are not in the Victorian era, so why do we have the need to label what we don’t clearly understand as a mental health issue. I stay stop labelling people and trying to control the public with labels and restrictions and let us live.

By: Heather Flight

Heather Flight — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 11:52:02 +0000

Well how very big of them!

By: Zoe Blade

Zoe Blade — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 10:52:14 +0000

Wow, first gay people aren’t considered insane anymore, and now transsexuals aren’t either. In one country, at least. The zeitgeist’s excrutiatingly slow to move forwards, but it looks like it’s still moving, so that’s something. It looks like transsexualism’s more of a neurological issue, so hopefully it can be reclassified as more physical than mental. It all depends on your point of view — are you a brain inside a body, or a body housing a brain? Personally, I think wherever my brain and body disagree, my brain should get the benefit of the doubt. Anyway, thanks for the support to everyone who’s happy about France’s move!

By: Jenny

Jenny — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 09:02:21 +0000

Yeey! That is excellent news! Shocked to find out they saw it as a mental disorder. Makes me wonder about Sweden… A big kissy Valentines Day hug to all of you sweeties!

By: Berber Anna

Berber Anna — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:40:06 +0000

Well, it isn’t psychiatric, but I do think it’s neurological — the brain bits to do with gender are clearly those of the opposite sex. So it would still be a ‘disorder’, or maybe more like a birth defect — something that needs funding to correct, anyway. But proper categorization does seem like a good thing to correct the stigma that’s somehow still attached to transgenders.

By: Nathaniel

Nathaniel — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 22:40:44 +0000

Alas, it’s very much a double-edged sword.

I personally do not think of it as a mental disorder, but a biological one like many scientists now believe. However, it being classes as a mental disorder allows patients such as myself to be on the receiving end of treatment in order to make a medical transition.

Without that diagnosis, it may risk possible treatment.

It’s difficult enough at the moment trying to get the NHS to pay for any treatment with things as they are now.

By: Alice

Alice — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 20:58:25 +0000

The problem a lot of people (trans and doctors) have is that health care providers will not provide a service unless there is an official diagnosis. Vaginoplasty would count as elective sugary rather than necessary physical (and in turn mental) intervention.

This announcement could serve to harm more trans people than it would do good for. As a trans person myself and a researcher in the area, I believe it is a mental disorder, or rather so aspects of it are. Gender variance is a huge spectrum of disorders all quite different from one another.

By: Dean

Dean — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:52:33 +0000

well lets get a little Transexual!! ? x

By: Megan

Megan — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:48:35 +0000

This is good to see, and would be nice to see it followed elsewhere, with one serious and significant proviso. This MUST NOT be used as an excuse to deny treatment, the one (only) benefit of the current classification is that it does at least provide a route to treatment.

By: Julian

Julian — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:42:44 +0000

Outstanding news I do hope the rest of the world follows along. As a transsexual, I can’t begin to say how much the phrase “gender identity disorder” or “gender dysphoria disorder” frustrate me. I haven’t got a gender disorder, I have a gender, it just doesn’t happen to be the same as my sex. I don’t think of myself as having a disease.

However, I hope that this decision will not affect state funding for sexual reassignment surgery. Plenty enough transsexuals live in misery because they can’t get surgery as it is.