Case study about a patient suffering from body integrity dysphoria and gender dysphoria

Among the phenomena that arise from a discrepancy between the external appearance of the body and the mental body image, there are two important ones: gender dysphoria (GD; transgender), which denotes people who have problems with their gender identity, and body integrity dysphoria (BID), which refers to people who have an intact body but mentally feel the need to change it in a way that may even cause disability, for example, an amputation. This single case report deals with the fate of a person who has both. This article describes a male-to-female transgender individual who managed to have her feet amputated, but was later arrested by police on charges of extreme pornography. The description shows that the suffering associated with BID can be so severe that extreme attempts at resolution are made. This case report also shows the lack of understanding in our society in dealing with the people affected. The article also shows that there seems to be a connection between the two different changes in body image gender dysphoria (GD) and body identity dysphoria (BID).