ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses both gender dysphoria, or transsexualism, and sexual preference. The clinical recognition of transsexualism was brought to the fore by the ground-breaking publication by Harry Benjamin in the United States in 1966, The Transsexual Phenomenon, citing the first transwoman in the United States, Christine Jorgensen, who had been treated in Denmark. The psychosexual clinic was part of the largest publicly funded sexual and reproductive healthcare setting in Scotland. There were multiple clinics running simultaneously providing a variety of services for contraception, medical gynaecology, genitourinary medicine and the psychosexual clinic. There have been mosaic pieces of evidence over the past few years pointing towards a biological basis for homosexuality. Testosterone therapy is the mainstay of treatment for female-to-male transsexuals. Many disparities in chronic health conditions in the younger sexual minority population persist into older age, and other conditions, such as cardiac problems and asthma are more likely to be reported by older lesbians and gay men.
