“It Depends on the Day”: Trans and Nonbinary Individuals’ Descriptions of Changes in Gender Dysphoria

Medical management of gender dysphoria focuses on providing gender affirmative interventions with the goal of reducing or eliminating gender dysphoria. This framework supports a narrative that conceptualizes gender dysphoria as a mental illness diagnosis, and considers gender dysphoria as relatively static. Recent qualitative research has documented that it is common for trans and nonbinary (TNB) individuals to describe shifts in their gender dysphoria. The present study focuses on TNB individuals’ descriptions of how their gender dysphoria changes or fluctuates. Participants included 524 TNB adults who ranged in age from 18 to 74 (M = 26.99, SD = 8.69). Participant responses were analyzed via thematic analysis, resulting in four main themes conceptualizing the changing nature of participants’ gender dysphoria: 1) General Changes; 2) Situational or Triggered Changes; 3) Changes through the Use of Coping Mechanisms; and 4) Stress-Based Fluctuations. Discussion of results focuses on how conceptualizing gender dysphoria as a shifting or changing entity may allow therapists to facilitate more positive client-therapist relationships and more accurately understand the experiences of TNB clients.