Trans pathologization is a term used to describe the medical community's approach to making the trans identity a pathologized identity. Subsequently, trans identities become subject to historical and dominant cultural references in which these diagnoses usually represent sicknesses, injury, or disabilities that make trans identities inferior or viewed as abnormal.
Trans pathologization is a discourse in which medical diagnosis defines and legitimizes trans existence. This is a complex and controversial discourse, because many feel that transgender identity should not be confined by such rigid definitions. Further, by making transgender identity a pathological diagnosis, it implies that trans identities are illnesses that can and should be cured. Trans pathologization is also related to the discourse surrounding sexual reassignment surgery.
