After redirecting the guidelines of the World Health Organization on 25th May 2019, WHO also recategorized the Transgender community under “sexual health condition”. The World Health Organisation, a specialized agency of the United States, is basically concerned with international public health.
Earlier, the transgender community was categorized under the mental health column. These people generally behave and express differently from that of the gender they naturally own. They have a different identity and expression from that of their natural sex. Transgender people naturally act opposite of their birth gender, while transsexual people intentionally undergo medical treatments to change their sex.
The transgender community was considered as the third gender in India by the government in April 2014. Now, The World Health Organisation has also recategorized this community under the sexual health condition. This recognition will now let this community live in the society with more dignity and prestige, as being categorized under mental health condition was not less than an out left portion in the society.
“Significant change in the mental disorders section of ICD-11 is the attempt of statisticians to simplify the codes as much as possible to allow for coding of mental health conditions by primary health care providers rather than by mental health specialists. This will be a critical move since the world still has a scarcity of mental health specialists — up to 9 out of 10 people needing mental health care don’t receive it”, stated the World Health Organization.
It further added that by adding transgender into sexual health condition, “Evidence is now clear that gender incongruence is not a mental disorder, and indeed classifying it as such can cause enormous stigma for people who are transgender. Also, there remain significant health care needs that can best be met if the condition is coded under the ICD (International Classification of Diseases).”
