The World Health Organisation(WHO) has passed legislation that will no longer categorize being transgender as a mental disorder. The decision was taken following a major resolution to amend its health guidelines was approved earlier this week on May 25.
According to the newly-updated version of the International Classification of Diseases (known as ICD-11), published by the WHO, “gender identity disorders” have been reframed as “gender incongruence.” The WHO said, “Evidence is now clear that gender incongruence is not a mental disorder, and indeed classifying it as such can cause enormous stigma for people who are transgender. Also, there remain significant health care needs that can best be met if the condition is coded under the ICD (International Classification of Diseases).” Gender incongruence has now been listed under sexual health conditions.
With this new move, Health and Human Rights activists are now hoping that the ICD-11 will be implemented by the WHO’s member states within the next three years. They also added that WHO’s removal of “gender identity disorder” from its diagnostic manual would have a liberating effect on the transgender people worldwide.
The WHO has also added that significant change in the mental disorders section of ICD-11 is the attempt of statisticians to simplify the codes as much as possible to allow for coding of mental health conditions by primary health care providers rather than by mental health specialists. This will be a critical move since the world still has a scarcity of mental health specialists, up to 9 out of 10 people needing mental health care don’t receive it.”
“In India, psychiatrists at an individual level have stopped treating transgender as a mental health condition. With this move, the Indian government will have to make the changes in the medical systems and laws that require this now officially outdated diagnosis,” said Dr Zakirhusain Shaikh, assistant professor, Department of Community Medicine, Hamdard Institute of Medical Sciences and Research.
Source: The Hindu, TIME