The Epidemiology of Gender Dysphoria in Iran: The First Nationwide Study.
Epidemiology
Gender dysphoria
Iran
Journal
Archives of sexual behavior
ISSN: 1573-2800
Titre abrégé: Arch Sex Behav
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 1273516
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
05 2022
05 2022
Historique:
received:
12
02
2020
accepted:
25
11
2021
revised:
23
11
2021
pubmed:
6
5
2022
medline:
16
6
2022
entrez:
5
5
2022
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Gender dysphoria (GD) is defined as a persistent and distressful incongruence between one's gender identity and one's at-birth-assigned sex. Sex reassignment has been religiously accepted for transgender individuals in postrevolutionary Iran since 1987; however, very little is known about how many individuals seek and receive such treatment annually. This study provides the first nationwide effort to assess the prevalence of GD in Iran as a function of diagnosis. The medical records of all transgender individuals referred to the Iranian Legal Medicine Organization between March 2012 and March 2017 were reviewed. All individuals diagnosed with GD were contacted. A total of 839 medical records meeting study criteria were received and evaluated. The prevalence of transgender individuals was estimated to be 1.46 per 100,000 Iranians with a transwoman (TW)/ transman (TM) ratio of 1:2. The mean age of individuals with GD at the time of referral was 25.22 (SD = 6.25) years for TW and 25.51 (SD = 5.66) years for TM. The findings are twofold. First, gender dysphoria is less prevalent in Iran than has been reported in Western countries. Second, the sex ratio is skewed toward at-birth-assigned females, which differs from what has been reported in Western countries. These findings have been interpreted in light of Iran's legal system, which is based on Islamic penal codes. These findings are of utmost importance for both health providers and legislators, as it can illustrate a more accurate picture of the transgender population in Iran.
Identifiants
pubmed: 35511409
doi: 10.1007/s10508-021-02250-y
pii: 10.1007/s10508-021-02250-y
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
1881-1889Informations de copyright
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
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