Gender dysphoria, distressing thoughts and feelings about your sexed body, is a social phenomenon just like other experiences of mental distress - depression, anorexia, anxiety etc. It does not have biological roots. >

A large number of people experience gender dysphoria, which is no surprise given how rigid and forceful our gendered society is. >

Some people who experience gender dysphoria go on to identify as trans, which is also unsurprising given how prominent that the trans narrative is within society, having been accepted by all the major institutions. >

It provides a narrative where people can make sense of their experiences and feel acknowledged. Not dissimilar to the narrative that depression is internal, something endogenous. Though, really we know this is untrue. >

Acknowledging that depression is psychosocial and environmental does not in any way detract from the extreme distress it causes. Same for anorexia. Same for anxiety. Same for gender dysphoria. >

The question is always, what provides the best relief - what makes the person feel better? The standard in current care for mental distress is challenging the thoughts and feelings that are causing the distress >

This is clearly possible with all these conditions, not that it's a panacea and also that accessing good mental health care is really fucking difficult. But this is certainly where investment should be. >

Invasive treatments are not the answer to mental distress supporting people to achieve mental health, self acceptance is. There's no evidence for another approach bar people who like ECT (which is a whole different conversation). >

The only reason we treat gender dysphoria differently is because of how ingrained misogynistic and homophobic beliefs are within society. >

If we were providing proper health care we'd help people manage the feelings they have over their sexed bodies and if they still felt the same they could decide whether to use hormones or access surgery. >

That's not conversion therapy, that's giving people a healthy position to make decisions from. I suspect though once the distress is managed or removed few people would choose to be lifelong patients.

*Just to be clear, I believe that any person resolving to use invasive interventions is an abject failure of our mental health services.