Transsexualism: state of medical care and public consultation
The High Authority for Health (HAS) has launched its website a public consultation on the management of transsexualism with the health system in France. The consultation ends on May 31 HAS THE seeking the opinions of a report that addresses medical care – diagnosis, hormone therapy and reassignment surgery – as well as socio-cultural and legal.
The ICD10 described transsexualism as “the desire to live and be accepted as a person belonging to the opposite sex. This desire is usually accompanied by a feeling of discomfort or inadequacy towards his own anatomical sex and a desire to undergo surgery or hormone treatment to make her body conform as nearly as possible to the desired sex. ”
The prevalence of transsexualism is estimated between 1 / 10000 and 1 / 50000 of the population.
Transsexualism should be differentiated from intersex (hermaphrodite) accompanied by physical and hormonal characteristics such as the person is anatomically and physiologically, between man and woman. Intersex could reach 2% of births. In the therapeutic approach to intersex, now expected that the sexual identity of the child develops before resorting to surgery arbitrary irreversible. This position is supported by failures related to the “imposition of a gender identity” from 2 years. It recognizes that the brain is a neurodevelopmental factor in gender identity, beyond the genital characteristics and social role assigned in infancy, the report said.
Several hypotheses have been advanced to explain transsexualism. It is regarded as resulting from biological, psychological and social interfering with the construction of sexual identity. The importance of these factors varies from one person to another. The report summarizes these different explanatory approaches.
The report describes the approaches used at different stages of medical care and the social and legal aspects of transsexualism.
