Own Study

Definitions used

Gender identity, or core gender identity, was used for the subjects´ conception of their own sex, their both physical and mental feeling of being a woman or a man (Stoller 1964a, b, and 1965).

Gender role was used for all aspects of the subject's behavior serving to disclose them as having the status of a boy or a man, girl or woman, including, but not restricted to, sexuality in the sense of eroticism (Hampson, 1964).

Transvestism was used only for dressing in the clothes of the opposite sex.

Transsexualism was used for a condition in which the subjects are convinced that they belong to the opposite sex and want a surgical change in their external sex characteristics, which are a source of disgust and torment. No psychotic component need be present. Other conditions, including transvestism, may also be characterized by uncertainty as to gender identity - there is thus some overlapping - but only in transsexualism is there a demand for surgical alteration of the body. This definition of transsexualism is much like the one used by Benjamin (1964a, 1966a) and Roth & Ball (1964).