After years of struggle, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced last Monday (18/06) a historic decision: transsexuality was officially removed from the list of mental illnesses of the United Nations agency (UN). ).
The topic had been discussed for a long time and, despite the delay, confirmation came and, as we have known for a long time, transsexuality is definitely not a disease.
On its website, the WHO published the newest revision of the International Classification of Diseases manual (ICD-11) that removes “gender incongruity” – as transsexuality is called in the manual – from the list of mental disorders, which include diseases such as pedophilia, for example.
Now, “gender incongruity” has been classified as a “condition relating to sexual health”, a way found by the agency to encourage the provision of public health policies for this population. The first announcement before making the change official was made in May.
“The reasoning is that the evidence is now clear that gender incongruence is not a mental disorder, and classifying it in this way causes enormous stigma for transgender people. There are still significant health care needs that can be better met if the condition is coded under the ICD,” said Dr. Lale Say, coordinator of the Adolescents and Populations at Risk Team, when explaining the change that now takes effect for the WHO.
