Gender Dysphoria in Adolescents : Mental Health and Treatment Evaluation

A. de Vries

Title chapter 4: Autism Spectrum Disorders in Gender Dysphoric Children and Adolescents. Adolescents with gender dysphoria were the focus of this thesis. The current media attention to this topic, not only in the Netherlands but also in North America, has led to a rising awareness of young people with gender dysphoria. In May 2007, the VU university medical center initiated the first meeting of the Adolescent Gender Identity Research (AGIR) network where clinical and research protocols were discussed. The network has now expanded to ten gender identity clinics from Europe and North America and two more will join soon. Participants of AGIR note both an increase in Comorbidity, the presence of two or more psychiatric disorders, occurs frequently among youth attending mental health services. The extent and type of psychiatric comorbidity deserve more attention as do the implications for treatment. Puberty suppression is now an element of clinical management of adolescents with a gender identity disorder (GID) at the AGIR clinics around the world. However, different views exist on the criteria for puberty suppression and no evaluative studies have been performed yet. In this thesis the author has analyzed mental health in gender dysphoric adolescents and evaluated clinical management encompassing puberty suppression. Three studies on psychological (dys)functioning and comorbid psychiatric disorders were conducted. Two follow-up studies were performed, one on puberty suppression only and one on gender reassignment preceded by puberty suppression.