Recommendations for Revision of the DSM Diagnoses of Gender Identity Disorders: Consensus Statement of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health

This consensus statement is an executive summary of several papers resulting from a 2009 consensus process comprising nine work groups and 37 members of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). The purpose of this group was to put forth recommendations for the upcoming revision of the DSM with respect to the Gender Identity Disorder diagnoses. The consensus process was collaborative, interdisciplinary, and evidence based. A majority (but not all) of the participants believed that a diagnosis related to Gender Identity Disorder should remain in the DSM, and many advocated changes in name, diagnostic criteria, and placement within the DSM. The proposed name is Gender Dysphoria, and the diagnostic criteria should be distress based. Placement should be outside the chapter on Sexual Disorders and possibly within Psychiatric Disorders Related to a Medical Condition. If there were to be a diagnostic category for childhood, there should also be separate categories for adults and adolescents. A Not Otherwise Specified category should be retained, and Disorders of Sex Development should not be an exclusionary criterion for Gender Dysphoria.