Introduction to the Special Section on Clinical Approaches to Adolescents with Gender Dysphoria

Transgender development in adolescents often occurs in the context of diverse psychiatric symptoms or diagnoses preceding, co-occurring with, or following the onset of the atypical gender identity variations. In addition, it tends to upset the prevailing binary gender ideology and, thereby, strain intra-family relationships as well as elicit stigma in other social contexts. The purpose of this Special Section is to describe clinical approaches to assessment and treatment of patients presenting with such challenging combinations of problems, before the background of societal changes that are affecting the traditional binary gender ideology.