Gender dysphoria in children

Gender dysphoria in children, also called gender incongruence of childhood, is a formal diagnosis for the distress that arises from a mismatch between a child's assigned sex and gender identity in some pre-pubescent transgender and gender diverse children. The diagnosis appears under that name in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, while the eleventh edition of the International Classification of Diseases defines gender incongruence of childhood and treats it as a physical rather than a psychiatric condition. Both diagnoses replaced gender identity disorder in children, which had been in the DSM since 1980 and the ICD since 1990 but was considered stigmatizing towards transgender people. The diagnoses were kept so that insurance coverage for gender-affirming healthcare would remain available, and the diagnosis remains controversial in the transgender community because some feel it continues to stigmatize transgender identity.