transsexualism

Definition

transsexualism rate

(Adult / Slang)

1. A type of gender identity disorder, gender dysphoria, in which an individual feels trapped in the body of the wrong sex coupled with a persistent desire for the physical characteristics and social roles that connote the opposite biological sex sometimes to the extent of undergoing hormone treatment and/or surgery to change from one's anatomical sex to the opposite sex. Transsexualism is defined in the 1980 edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders : ' In a person who has reached puberty, a condition characterized by two major criteria: 1) Persistent discomfort and sense of inappropriateness about ones assigned sex. 2) Persistent preoccupation for at least two years with getting rid of one's primary and secondary sex characteristics and acquiring the sex characteristics of the other sex.'

2. The act of dressing, living, behaving and passing socially as a member of the opposite sex with or without hormonal, surgical, or legal sex reassignment. Synonym: behaviorally transsexualism.

ETYMOLOGY: Coined by Harry Benjamin in 1966 possibly from the Latin transire , meaning to pass or cross over, or pass beyond, and vestitus , clothed.