Sexual maturation disorder was listed in the tenth edition of the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

's (WHO)

International Classification of Diseases The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is a globally used diagnostic tool for epidemiology, health management and clinical purposes. The ICD is maintained by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is the directing and coordinating ...

, the

ICD-10 ICD-10 is the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD), a medical classification list by the World Health Organization (WHO). It contains codes for diseases, signs and symptoms, ...

, the most widely used diagnostic manual by psychiatrists and psychologists worldwide. It was described as a disorder of

anxiety Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and includes feelings of dread over anticipated events. Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat wh ...

or depression related to an uncertainty about one's

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...

.ICD-10, In 2014 it was determined that there was no justification for the existence of this mental disorder category, and the diagnosis was not included in the

ICD-11 The ICD-11 is the eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). It replaces the ICD-10 as the global standard for recording health information and causes of death. The ICD is developed and annually updated by the World He ...

, which went into effect in January 2022.

History

Sexual maturation disorder, along with

ego-dystonic sexual orientation Ego-dystonic sexual orientation is a highly controversial mental health diagnosis that was included in the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (DSM) from 1980 to 1987 (under the name ...

and sexual relationship disorder, was introduced to the ICD in 1990, replacing the ICD-9 diagnosis of homosexuality. The following note was applied to the entirety of part F66, the section in which these three diagnoses appeared: "Sexual orientation by itself is not to be regarded as a disorder."

Removal from ICD

As part of the development of the ICD-11, the WHO appointed a Working Group on the Classification of Sexual Disorders and Sexual Health to make recommendations on the disease categories related to sexual orientation (part F66). The working group recommended the entire part F66 be deleted due to a lack of clinical utility, a lack of usefulness in public health data, and the potential for negative consequences, including the risk that these categories might lend support to "ineffective and unethical treatment" such as

conversion therapy Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to align with heterosexual and cisgender norms. In contrast to evidence-based medicine and cli ...

. It noted that there is no evidence that non-heterosexual sexual orientation is itself a cause of distress; instead, there is robust empirical evidence that psychological symptoms in non-heterosexual people are the product of discrimination, social rejection, and stigma. In reference to sexual maturation disorder specifically, the working group noted the possibility that this diagnostic category conflated normal developmental patterns with pathological processes, and also noted that people with a non-heterosexual sexual orientation or who are

gender nonconforming Gender variance or gender nonconformity is behavior or gender expression by an individual that does not match masculine or feminine gender norms. A gender-nonconforming person may be variant in their gender identity, being transgender or non-bina ...

may experience social stress due to stigma, but such distress is not indicative of a disorder. Accordingly, the ICD-11 does not include any diagnostic categories that can be applied to people on the basis of sexual orientation, bringing the ICD in line with the

DSM-5 The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition'' (DSM-5), is the 2013 update to the ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'', the taxonomic and diagnostic tool published by the American Psychiatric ...

References

External links

{{Mental and behavioural disorders, selected = adult Anxiety disorders Sexual orientation and psychology Transgender and medicine

History

Removal from ICD

See also

References

External links