The World Health Organization may remove transgender identity from a list of mental disorders in its new codebook.
The global health agency has been considering whether to declassify transgender identity as being a mental illness when it releases its updated list of global health conditions. Each WHO committee that has considered the change has approved it, reflecting a trend among psychologists to stop regarding gender incongruence as a mental disorder.
The final decision will influence how treatment for transgender people is billed, as the WHO’s codebook establishes a standard system used around the world. Under the proposed change, transgender would be moved from the mental disorder category and into a newly created section titled “Conditions related to sexual health.”
The codebook is known as the International Classification of Diseases, or, ICD for short. The updated version, expected to be released next year, will be known as ICD-11. The current version, ICD-10, was approved in 1990.
Some countries, including Sweden, are pressuring the WHO to make the change. Danish lawmakers recently said they would act unilaterally if the agency doesn’t reclassify transgender identity, although it’s not clear how they would do that.
