What does it mean?

“Gender dysphoria” is a medical term used to describe a feeling of discomfort with your body, or discomfort with the gender people are treating you as.

“Gender dysphoria is the distress associated with the experience of one’s personal gender identity being inconsistent with the phenotype means or the gender role typically associated with that phenotype.” – Royal College of Psychiatrists

Medical term

"Person with gender dysphoria" is a term that describes people using a medical condition or diagnosis.

Terms like this can:

• help make it obvious that people should be allowed medical and psychological assistance
• help when people are trying to find funding or receive a referral to a specialist

However, terms like this can also:

• give the impression that there is something wrong with people (it is “pathologising”)
• make it seem like people with a medical diagnosis are more genuine or valid than people who do not

Think carefully before using this term to describe someone or a group of people - they may not wish to be described that way.

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