Some Preliminary Findings of an International Study on Gender Dysphoria and Health-Related Problems

Transsexualism, or rather “gender dysphoria”, is currently a psychiatric disorder. Although there is an high pitched debate on its depathologization, studies focused on dimensions which go beyond the pathologization are still very few. This work is the result of a collaboration between the University of Naples “Federico II” and the Institute National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médical (Inserm) of Paris. The first phase of this study aims at analysing some issues related to trans people’s health linking them to internalized stigma and adult attachment styles. Selfreport questionnaires have been used, administered to 41 trans people (11 MtF and 30 FtM) through both the web and face-to-face. The dimensions they assessed were the following: transition, medical-psychological intervention, general health status, sexuality, internalized transphobia, attachment styles and couple-life satisfaction. This work reports the first analyses which only consider the connection between health and internalized transphobia dimensions. Within health dimension, internalized transphobia did not result to be associated with general health status (r = -.10, p = .60). It was able to predict depression [B = .255; p = 015; Exp (B) = 1.3], but not suicidal ideation [B = .006; p = .942; Exp (B) = 1.006]. Within sexuality dimension, internalized transphobia has shown a significant and negative correlation with sexual-life satisfaction (r = .47; p < .01). Finally, the discrimination suffered during the childhood was not a significant predictor of internalized transphobia (F = 1.3; p = .43). These preliminary results show the importance to develop a view of transgender people as not pathological per se. On the contrary, these findings demonstrate that the major part of the problems of transgender people is internal insofar as they derive from an internalization of external culture.