Gender dysphoria and incongruence - neurophysiological diversity and genetic factors

Introduction: Transgender people may experience gender dysphoria, which is defined as the distress and impairment associated with a person's perception of a marked incongruity between their gender identification and their sex assigned at birth. The aim of the study is to understand the neurophysiological diversity of people with and without dysphoria, as well as to assess the genetic, endocrine and biological basis of the development of dysphoria. Material and methods: A review of the available literature was performed by searching the Google Scholar and PubMed databases using the keywords: dysphoria, gender incongruity, neurophysiology, neurophysiological diversity and dysphoria, gender dysphoria and genetics. This publication is based on a literature review covering the years 2015 - 2023. Works published before 2015 were excluded from the analysis. The SANRA scale was used to maintain the high quality of the narrative review. Results: Gender dysphoria has a polygenic basis, involving interactions between various genes and their polymorphisms. Endocrine factors are also important, so the most complete picture of the neurophysiological basis of gender dysphoria can be obtained by adding brain imaging tests and measurements of sex hormone concentrations to genetic tests. Conclusions: Determining what biological factors contribute to gender dysphoria may have a positive impact on the mental health of transgender people. Moreover, this knowledge can be used to improve the quality of diagnosis and treatment of these people. Therefore, there is a clinical need to conduct further research in this field.