Apart from some general issues related to the Gender Identity Disorder (GID) diagnosis, such as whether it should stay in
the DSM-V or not, a number of problems specifically relate to the current criteria of the GID diagnosis for adolescents and
adults. These problems concern the confusion caused by similarities and differences of the terms transsexualism and GID, the
inability of the current criteria to capture the whole spectrum of gender variance phenomena, the potential risk of unnecessary
physically invasive examinations to rule out intersex conditions (disorders of sex development), the necessity of the D criterion
(distress and impairment), and the fact that the diagnosis still applies to those who already had hormonal and surgical treatment.
If the diagnosis should not be deleted from the DSM, most of the criticism could be addressed in the DSM-V if the diagnosis
would be renamed, the criteria would be adjusted in wording, and made more stringent. However, this would imply that the diagnosis
would still be dichotomous and similar to earlier DSM versions. Another option is to follow a more dimensional approach, allowing
for different degrees of gender dysphoria depending on the number of indicators. Considering the strong resistance against
sexuality related specifiers, and the relative difficulty assessing sexual orientation in individuals pursuing hormonal and
surgical interventions to change physical sex characteristics, it should be investigated whether other potentially relevant
specifiers (e.g., onset age) are more appropriate.
Keywords Gender identity disorder - Transsexualism - Gender dysphoria - DSM-V