The DSM-5 updates its gender/transgender vocabulary in a positive way

The American psychiatric manual, the DSM-5 (now called DSM-5-TR) has revised the chapter on gender dysphoria. The main changes reflects a more on target and respectful language for describing gender variance.

• The term “desired gender” is now “experienced gender.“
• The term “cross-sex medical procedure” is now “gender-affirming medical procedure.”
• The term “natal male”/“natal female” is now “individual assigned male/female at birth.”

It seems to me that the doctors writing this chapter are both willing and able to have a constructive dialog with trans people.

However, for some bizarre reason, they have not removed the “autogynephilia” concept from the manual.

I understand that the writers of the gender dysphoria chapter use the “autogynephilia” term purely as a neutral term describing erotic crossdreaming fantasies, but that is not how it will be understood by most readers (or doctors for that matter).

More about the consequences of the continuous use of the term “autogynephilia” in the DSM-5 here.

You can read the new revised introduction to the DSM-5 chapter on gender dysphoria here.

Photo from The Trans Rights Protest London, April 2022, by Karollyne Hubert on Unsplash.