transsexualism
n. a condition consisting of a persistent sense of discomfort and inappropriateness relating to one’s anatomical sex, with a persistent wish to be rid of one’s genitals and to live as a member of the other sex. Those with this condition often seek to change their sex through surgical and hormonal means (see sex reassignment). Transsexualism is characterized as a gender identity disorder in DSM–IV–TR, where its diagnosis is applicable only if the condition is not due to another mental disorder, such as schizophrenia, and it is not associated with an intersex condition or genetic abnormality. In DSM–5, the discomfort or distress that may be associated with one’s sense of gender incongruence, not one’s transsexual identification per se, is given primacy through the inclusion of gender dysphoria in place of gender identity disorder as a diagnostic class.
—transsexual
adj., n.