Mental Health PlaybookGender Dysphoria Institute
- Geographic: International
- Mission: Our mission is to conduct, support and communicate cutting-edge research on gender dysphoria that benefits gender dysphoric youth, their families and the general public.
- People Served: Vulnerable gender dysphoric youth, their families, physicians, mental health professionals, scientists and the public
- Operating Budget: $320,000
- Focus Areas and Core Competencies:
- To conduct high-quality research to address crucial knowledge gaps in mental health and societal contributors to gender dysphoria.
- To disseminate uncensored research findings to families, medical professionals, policymakers and the public that deepens their understanding about contributing factors and likely outcomes.
Impact Statement
Gender Dysphoria Institute’s leaders have significantly contributed to the current understanding of gender dysphoria and transgender identification in adolescents and young adults and have authored 14 scientific publications. Their first major long-term study of gender dysphoric adolescents and young adults, and their families, is currently in process.
A Conversation with Dr. Lisa Littman, President of Gender Dysphoria Institute
Q: What is the mission of your organization? What specific areas related to mental health challenges is your nonprofit working to solve?
At Gender Dysphoria Institute (GDI), we believe there are many unanswered questions when it comes to the unprecedented increase in the number of teens and young adults identifying as transgender, experiencing gender dysphoria and seeking transition interventions. Why has the number of teens and young adults identifying as transgender skyrocketed? What prior mental health conditions may be contributing to this? What are the most likely outcomes, and what can families and professionals do to facilitate the optimal outcomes?
This new population of young people is dramatically different than previous cohorts. The onset of their gender dysphoria is later as most did not have gender dysphoria during childhood. Many have serious mental health conditions (which they typically had before the onset of gender dysphoria). Many show signs of social and ideological contributions to gender dysphoria. Many parents are skeptical that gender dysphoria is the correct diagnosis and, especially, that medical and social gender transition are the answer.
The epidemic of youth gender dysphoria has coincided with a decade of censoring research offering any perspective other than gender affirmation: “If your child says they are transgender, you should accept this and help them to transition.” This censorship has been accompanied by irresponsible medical gatekeeping, leading to unnecessary and irreversible medical intervention on too many young persons. And it has led to demonstrable gaps in our understanding of gender dysphoria in today’s youth.
Q: How do you describe the big goals your organization is working to achieve? How do you measure impact?
We address the many important gaps in knowledge about youth gender dysphoria by conducting groundbreaking scientific research. Impact will be measured by research productivity (numbers of publications), influence (citations, downloads and media coverage), and for each publication, number of citations and downloads. Innovation will be measured by the number of new projects begun every three years.
Currently, for example, we are conducting the Adolescent and Young Adult Gender Dysphoria Outcomes Study (AYAGDOS). This international study will enroll more than 1,000 participants comprised of parents of gender dysphoric youth (age 13-21) and gender dysphoric youth themselves. We will follow these individuals for five years. This will allow us to examine the rates of different outcomes, such as desistance (waning of gender dysphoria), gender transition and gender detransition. Furthermore, we will study which characteristics of youth predict different outcomes. Importantly, we will examine how decisions by families and by medical and mental health professionals contribute to these different outcomes.
To date we have 433 participants (397 parents and 36 youth) and we are continuing recruitment efforts. We will measure the impact of this study via numbers of participants who complete the study, the number and quality of publications and publication citations and downloads. Furthermore, the degree to which we successfully publicize our findings in media reports, op-eds and scientific conferences will be monitored.
Q: What are some of the biggest challenges the organization has experienced working to accomplish its mission? How did your organization overcome those challenges?
The ideological pro-transition, “gender affirming” approach has been gaining popularity for more than a decade. Researchers and clinicians adhering to this approach are numerous and have been well-funded. Importantly, too many of these have worked to suppress research findings inconvenient to their beliefs and ideological preferences. There has been no chance of federal research funding for research questioning the gender affirming approach, as we do. Furthermore, because so many academics and medical researchers share these biases, there has been a plethora of mediocre research published that ostensibly supports gender affirmation.
Recently, the important Cass Review (and several other careful reviews from European countries with centralized health care) reached similar conclusions as us about the low quality of evidence for gender transition, especially for the recent cohort of dysphoric youth.
Unfortunately, however, there is not yet any indication that federal funding will be increased for research addressing the important, unanswered questions. Gender dysphoric youth, their families, medical and mental health professionals, policymakers and the public still need answers.
Q: What are your organization’s biggest needs? How can philanthropists help your organization achieve its goals?
Presently, our biggest need is researcher time. All researchers involved in our current research projects have full-time careers or very substantial time commitments aside from this research. Compensating these researchers for their time will allow them to spend more of it on our projects. For our long-term study of gender dysphoria outcomes, we need funds for recruiting gender dysphoric youth. We have been much less successful doing so than recruiting parents of gender dysphoric youth. We have an idea of how to improve our efforts recruiting youth, and it involves paying consultants with relevant connections.
Q: Beyond the organization, where should philanthropists who care about advancing knowledge related to improving mental health invest their charitable dollars?
There are several organizations in this area who are doing excellent work. Therapy First is an organization of mental health professionals that takes a psychotherapy first, exploratory position for young people experiencing gender issues. As a group, they provide mentorship and supervision to mental health professionals wanting to engage thoughtfully with gender dysphoric clients. The Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine (SEGM) analyzes and communicates the evidence base about the treatment of gender dysphoria in youth and educates the medical and scientific community.
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