Missouri going HAM on their anti-trans stuff now, adding an emergency rule under the "Merchandising Practices Act".
You have to be annually re-diagnosed with gender dysphoria, you have to be diagnosed 3 years in a row to qualify for care, you have to have at least 15 sessions of therapy over 18 months, you have to be screened for autism, you may be denied due to comorbidities like depression, you have to be annually assessed to see if you're suffering "social contagion", and they must track all adverse effects (expected or unexpected) for 15 years. And this applies to adults as well.
I love when politicians practice medicine. I have a trans friend in MO. She is very frustrated right now.
I posted this today:
I was contemplating many of the words used against transgender individuals. Several of these words have been used on me. The old phrase of "sticks and stones" and something about names starts to feel wrong. Words do hurt, especially when blasted over a megaphone.
Here are many of the words - freak, devil, monster, pedophile, confused, slow, stupid, non-existent, demon, mutant, imps, wrong, ugly, mental illness and delusional.
By no stretch is this all-encompassing as there are plenty of synonyms and turn of phrases people have come up with to dig a knife in with words. As you can imagine, when groups get together, these words are echoed and shared to the point a stereotype is created and transgender people are villainized.
This is evidenced by the violence against LGBTQ individuals and can be easily seen in hate crime statistics. The hate is very real to people needing to move states or go into hiding. The laws being created across the country are indeed causing harm.
There are two of the words I want to address above - delusions and mental illness. Both words actually have no bearing on transgender individuals but are currently being used as catch phrases around the country.
Delusional disorder is a type of psychotic disorder characterized by delusions. A delusion is an unshakable belief in something that's untrue but almost everyone knows is false. There are different types - erotomanic - a belief that you are connected with someone important. Grandiose - an overinflated sense of self. Jealous - a belief that someone is unfaithful, but with no proof. Persecutory - a belief that someone is spying or attempting to harm you. Somatic - a delusion that people believe they have a parasite or bad odor. Mixed - some combination of the above.
Delusions doesn't include transgender individuals. Interestingly, there is strong genetic evidence to support a cause of people being transgender. It tends to be polygenetic and there is plenty of research to support this.
The second is mental illness. This stems from a time when "transgender" or "gender dysphoria" was known in the past to be part of the psychiatry text book. As time has evolved and our understanding of psychiatry and the medical world has improved, we have found gender dysphoria is placed into different categories of diagnosis and treatment. People like to fall on a psych diagnosis because it seems nebulous and ill-defined. Interestingly, as we learn more about mental illness, we are identifying, with no surprise, genetics also plays a role in "mental illness." Schizophrenia, bipolar, autism, ADHD, depression, anxiety can actually be connected to genetics and our development. These genes play a role in neuron development and signaling and can lead to any of the above mentioned conditions.
Perhaps, this is why every major medical society in the US takes gender dysphoria seriously and agree of its existence and importance on treatment. While a lot of the research is still relatively new, there is vast evidence to support treatment of individuals with gender dysphoria.
Long-term study of 40 years - (is this long enough? - do we need 10 more years? 20 years?)
Gender-affirming surgery is a durable treatment that improves overall patient well-being. High patient satisfaction, improved dysphoria, and reduced mental health comorbidities persist decades after GAS without any reported patient regret.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov