Investigation of Axis 1 Psychiatric Disorders in Patients with Gender Dysphoria along with Gender Reassignment Surgery: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study in Iran

Abstract

Introduction: Gender dysphoria is characterized by a clear inconsistency between a person's experienced gender and the assigned gender, and gender reassignment surgery is part of its treatment. Considering the increasing access to such treatments, this study aimed to investigate Axis 1 psychiatric disorders in patients with gender dysphoria undergoing sex reassignment surgery.

Method: In this cross-sectional and descriptive study, 44 patients who underwent at least one sex reassignment surgery during the years 2018-2019 in the Welfare Organization, Taleghani Hospital and Tehran Gender Dysphoria Association and at least 6 months had passed since their first surgery. They were evaluated by interview and SCID-4.

Results: Our results showed that 86.4% of the subjects had Axis 1 psychiatric disorder before the operation, while 75% of them had these disorders after the operation. Also, among the cases studied before surgery, the prevalence of PTSD (P=0.002) and social anxiety (P=0.008) and specific phobia (P=0.049) after surgery among transgender women was significantly higher than men.

Conclusion: Sex reassignment surgery reduced the rate of Axis 1 psychiatric comorbid disorders in these individuals, although this reduction was not large and no statistically significant difference was observed.