Transseksualiteit komt vaker voor dan u denkt. Een nieuwe kijk op de prevalentie van transseksualiteit in Nederland en België

Samenvatting

Often transsexualism is presumed to be rather rare. The medical literature often cites a prevalence of 1 in 11,900 for male to female transsexualism and 1 in 30,400 for female to male transsexualism. A detailed analysis of the publications behind these numbers reveals that these numbers underestimate the relative number of individuals that is confronted with transsexualism, the so-called inherent prevalence of transsexualism. Based on data extracted from earlier publications it is possible to derive a lower bound for the inherent prevalence of transsexualism in the Netherlands and Belgium. This analysis results in inherente prevalencies for sex reassignment surgeries that are about four times higher than the above cited numbers. The prevalence of transsexualism will be significantly higher since not all transsexuals will undergo sex reassignment. 