Gender dysphoria often caused inside mother’s womb

There are often serious mismatches with hormones which may have been caused by various factors such as medications that may have been consumed by the mother during her pregnancy.

Unborn babies can also be exposed to hormones that are opposite to their physical gender.

Dr Monika highlighted that gender development is complex and there are many possible variations which can cause a mismatch between an individual’s biological sex and their gender identity, thus making the exact cause of gender dysphoria unclear.

“The sex of the baby is identified through its characteristic features, and by looking at the genitalia. You don’t perform chromosome testing when the baby is born to identify the gender.”

Hormones that trigger development of biological sex may not always work sufficiently on the brain, genitals and reproductive organs causing an unbalance.

Other rare conditions can cause gender dysphoria, such as intersex conditions or ambiguous genitalia, which cause babies to be born

The person will grow up feeling a complete conflict that no one will understand because he looks like a male from the outside but is really a female on the inside.” Dr Monika Chawla, reproductive endocrinologist and fertility specialist at Fakih IVF Fertility Centre

with the genitalia of both sexes.

This is when parents are often recommended to wait until the child grows and chooses his or her own gender identity, prior to any surgical intervention.

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), where a high level of male hormones are produced in a female foetus, causing the genitals to appear male in appearance, which means the baby may be thought to be biologically a male at birth, is also common.

“The person will grow up feeling a complete conflict that no one will understand because he looks like a male from the outside but is really a female on the inside,” she said.

Adults with gender dysphoria can feel trapped inside a body that doesn’t match their gender identity and are unable to conform societal expectations.

“They may have a strong desire to get rid of physical signs of their biological sex, such as facial hair or breasts.

“Men with gender dysphoria suffer more, whereas women who act and dress in a masculine fashion don’t seem to face the same ridicule taunts,” said Dr Pankaj.

“Several times these people start self-medicating themselves with hormones and there have even been instances of self-mutilation of genitalia — all because society and the medical world don’t know how to react to them.”

He said that it is crucial to raise awareness and shed light on the health issue.

“Only awareness can improve plight of these people.”