Gender Identity & Gender Identity Disorder

Gender Identity

Gender identity (or core gender identity) is a person's own sense of identification as male or female. The term is intended to distinguish this psychological association, from physiological or sociological determinations of gender.Gender identity was originally a medical term used to explain sex reassignment procedures to the public.The term is also found in psychology, often as core gender identity. Sociology, gender studies and feminism are still inclined to refer to gender identity, gender role and erotic preference under the catch-all term gender.
Gender identity is affected by "genetic, prenatal hormonal, postnatal social, and postpubertal hormonal determinants."Biological factors include the influence of testosterone and gene regulation in brain cells. Social factors are primarily based on the family, as gender identity is thought to be formed by the third year of life
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (302.85) has five criteria that must be met before a diagnosis of gender identity disorder (GID) can be made. "In gender identity disorder, there is discordancy between the natal sex of one's external genitalia and the brain coding of one's gender as masculine or feminine."

Gender Identity Disorder

Gender identity disorder, as identified by psychologists and physicians, is a condition in which a person has been birthed one gender, usually on the basis of their sex at birth (compare intersex disorders), but identifies as belonging to another gender, and feels significant discomfort or the inability to deal with this condition. It is a psychiatric classification and describes the problems related to transsexuality, transgender identity and more rarely transvestism. It is the diagnostic classification most commonly applied to transsexuals.
The core symptom of gender identity disorders is gender dysphoria, literally being uncomfortable with one's assigned gender.This feeling is usually reported as "having always been there" since childhood, although in some cases, it appears in adolescence or adulthood, and has been reported by some as intensifying over time.Since many cultures strongly disapprove of cross-gender behaviour, it often results in significant problems for affected persons and those in close relationships with them. In many cases, discomfort is also reported as stemming from the feeling that one's body is "wrong" or meant to be different.