ABSTRACT
Taking a history in a gender identity clinic is much like taking a history in a general psychiatric setting, but with extra emphasis on sex and gender matters. Family is relevant in the usual sense – serious mental illnesses with heritability, transgenerational predicates etc – but also in the sense that gender identity disorders can run in families, and may be associated with homosexuality or transvestism in other family members. This is as standard, with particular concentration on anomalous pubertal development and any earlier surgery overtly or covertly related to gender identity disorder. Occupational circumstances are most important in terms of whether the patient is occupied in their preferred social gender role or, if not, whether they have any realistic plans in this regard in their current or any other occupation. More than in any other aspect of psychiatry, gender identity disorders require collateral history and confirmation.
