Utrecht Gender Dysphoria Scale (Cohen-Kettenis & Van Goozen, 1997)

• Populations: Adolescents and young adults
• Age ranges: 15-20
• Languages: English
• Countries: United States

Items

Subscales

• Gender Dysphoria, 14 items
• Gender Affirmation, 4 items

All Items

• I prefer to behave like my affirmed gender. 
• Every time someone treats me like my assigned sex I feel hurt.
• It feels good to live as my affirmed gender. 
• I always want to be treated like my affirmed gender. 
• A life in my affirmed gender is more attractive for me than a life in my assigned sex.
• I feel unhappy when I have to behave like my assigned sex. 
• It is uncomfortable to be sexual in my assigned sex. 
• Puberty felt like a betrayal.
• Physical sexual development was stressful.
• I wish I had been born as my affirmed gender.
• The bodily functions of my assigned sex are distressing for me (i.e. erection, menstruation).
• My life would be meaningless if I would have to live as my assigned sex.
• I feel hopeless if I have to stay in my assigned sex.
• I feel unhappy when someone misgenders me.
• I feel unhappy because I have the physical characteristics of my assigned sex.
• I hate my birth assigned sex.
• I feel uncomfortable behaving like my assigned sex.
• It would be better not to live, than to live as my assigned sex.

Scoring

“Items on the Dysphoria subscale are worded such that higher scores correspond with greater gender dysphoria (e.g., “I hate the sex I was assigned at birth”). One has the word affirmed: “I wish I had been born as my affirmed gender.” The four items that factored on the Gender Affirmation subscale are worded such that connection with affirmed gender is scored higher: “It feels good to live as my affirmed gender.” Scores should be averaged for each subscale: Dysphoria (Items 2, and 6–18) and Gender Affirmation (Items 1, 3, 4, and 5), with no reverse scoring, to achieve a value between 1 and 5 each for Dysphoria and for Gender Affirmation.” (McGuire et al., 2020)

Citations

Cohen-Kettenis, P. T., & Van Goozen, S. H. M. (1997). Sex Reassignment of Adolescent Transsexuals: A Follow-up Study. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 36(2), 263–271. https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-199702000-00017

McGuire, J.K., Rider, G. N., Catalpa, J. M., Steensma, T. D.,  Cohen-Kettenis, P. T., Berg, D. R. (2020). Utrecht Gender Dysphoria Scale – Gender Spectrum. In R. R. Milhausen, J. K. Sakaluk, T. D. Fischer, C. M. Davis, W. L. Yarber (Eds.), Handbook of sexuality-related measures, 4th edition (359-362). Routledge.

Chen, R., Feng, Y., Su, D., Wilson, A., Han, M., & Wang, Y. (2023). Utrecht Gender Dysphoria Scale – Gender Spectrum in a Chinese population: Scale validation and associations with mental health, self-harm and suicidality. BJPsych Open, 9(1), e17. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2022.617

Team comments

An adapted version of this scale was created by Chen et al., 2023