Psychiatric diagnosis of patients requesting sex reassignment surgery

This paper presents the psychiatric diagnostic findings on 51 patients who requested Sex Reassignment Surgery. The biologic females, as a group, were significantly healthier than the males. Ninety-two percent of the males and 58% of the females had psychiatric diagnoses, apart from gender dysphoria. Most of the abnormalities in both groups were character disorders; eight percent of the patients, however, were schizophrenic. Psychometric evaluation suggested that approximately one-half of the patients had more serious disorders than were indicated during clinical evaluation. The initial and ongoing diagnostic processes are helpful in the pre- and postoperative management of patients with gender dysphoria.