AME handbook drops gender dysphoria section

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Some Guy said:
I'm not sure what to make of this, but the FAA seems to have erased the guidance on gender dysphoria. Not only is the online page gone but the links to it so it would appear intentional...

Before: https://web.archive.org/web/2024100...ame_guide/app_process/exam_tech/item48/amd/gd

After: https://www.faa.gov/ame_guide/app_process/exam_tech/item48/amd/gd
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Might have something to do with the executive order saying Fed Gov only recongized male and female genders??
 
Kind of a weird thing to do, because it's not like these folks are going to stop walking through the door looking for a medical certificate. Changing policy doesn't make reality disappear. All they've done is now leave a question-mark where there was previously a clear directive.
 
AvNavCom said:
Kind of a weird thing to do, because it's not like these folks are going to stop walking through the door looking for a medical certificate. Changing policy doesn't make reality disappear. All they've done is now leave a question-mark where there was previously a clear directive.
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Is that true? Or, in the absence of a prohibition and rules the default is that they get to be pilots like everyone else?
 
I would assume that gender dysphoria will no longer be a subject for medical exams. Otherwise healthy people will become pilots, if they have the required skills for the profession.
 
geezer said:
I would assume that gender dysphoria will no longer be a subject for medical exams. Otherwise healthy people will become pilots, if they have the required skills for the profession.
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Yeah right. Good one
 
The FAA goes after a ton of stuff that they shouldn’t.

However doesn’t gender diaspora have a very high rate of suicide, especially when compared to more common items FAA goes after people over like depression, ADHD etc?
 
172andyou said:
Is that true? Or, in the absence of a prohibition and rules the default is that they get to be pilots like everyone else?
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It has less to do with the dysphoria diagnosis itself and more to do with the potential for associated hormonal medications (which can have mood and cognitive effects) and the frequent association of other mental health diagnoses. Those can be addressed elsewhere, but pulling all of that together into a single guide is helpful.
 
So it is no longer under CACI, and what it should mean is simply that gender dysphoria and the treatments for it are addressed by the FAA the same as any other dysphoria.
 
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Does taking down the guidance from the website actually change anything?

Without any statement who knows what, if anything, it means. Could be they just no longer find it relevant... last I knew it wasn't a disqualifying thing on it's own.
 
The thing is, there are 15 disqualifying conditions in the regs put there through the rule making process. Gender dysphoria has never been one.

But, there are hundreds more defacto disqualifying conditions in practice just because they are put in the AME guide and require deferral without following the APA. It seems taking it out of the AME guide eliminates it as a disqualifying factor. Maybe...it's not very transparent how they decide what requires deferral when it is not an official disqualifying condition.

I expect much more of these.
 
jbarrass said:
The thing is, there are 15 disqualifying conditions in the regs put there through the rule making process. Gender dysphoria has never been one.

But, there are hundreds more defacto disqualifying conditions in practice just because they are put in the AME guide and require deferral without following the APA. It seems taking it out of the AME guide eliminates it as a disqualifying factor. Maybe...it's not very transparent how they decide what requires deferral when it is not an official disqualifying condition.

I expect much more of these.
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I just expect more confusion in general.
 
Roller said:
However doesn’t gender diaspora have a very high rate of suicide, especially when compared to more common items FAA goes after people over like depression, ADHD etc?
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I think that's often related to whether or not they feel recognized and supported, or demonized and shunned.
 
Categorically not meaning to lock the thread and/or get banned here.

There’s a difference between “sex” and “gender”; growing up I think most of us used them synonymously (I know I did, even in med school) but then they became more clearly distinct - at least for a while. They’re back to being perceived as synonymous but they still aren’t.

Title IX and other things explicitly state “sex” and the language changes by the Executive Office in the past few days do as well. Those trying to say that Title IX doesn’t allow GENDER discrimination are incorrect, I believe (I’m not an attorney).

The terms have grown back to “feeling” synonymous but they’re not. In fact, sex, gender, and sexual orientation have all become conflated in many ways but they’re three distinct things.
 
UTLonghorn_1979 said:
Might have something to do with the executive order saying Fed Gov only recongized male and female genders??
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If anything that would BOLSTER the significance of a GD diagnosis, not eradicate it.
geezer said:
I would assume that gender dysphoria will no longer be a subject for medical exams. Otherwise healthy people will become pilots, if they have the required skills for the profession.
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Now THAT aspect of the new administration could be applicable. You know, meritocracy and whatnot.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
I think that's often related to whether or not they feel recognized and supported, or demonized and shunned.
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I think that’s a pretty common relationship to everyone’s human experience.

Most just handle it better.

I think it’s something more than that. Just thankful I don’t deal with anything beyond work/performance based anxiety.
 
Llewtrah381 said:
Categorically not meaning to lock the thread and/or get banned here.

There’s a difference between “sex” and “gender”; growing up I think most of us used them synonymously (I know I did, even in med school) but then they became more clearly distinct - at least for a while. They’re back to being perceived as synonymous but they still aren’t.

Title IX and other things explicitly state “sex” and the language changes by the Executive Office in the past few days do as well. Those trying to say that Title IX doesn’t allow GENDER discrimination are incorrect, I believe (I’m not an attorney).

The terms have grown back to “feeling” synonymous but they’re not. In fact, sex, gender, and sexual orientation have all become conflated in many ways but they’re three distinct things.
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The word was not even used in American English when many of us grew up.
 
cowman said:
Does taking down the guidance from the website actually change anything?

Without any statement who knows what, if anything, it means. Could be they just no longer find it relevant... last I knew it wasn't a disqualifying thing on it's own.
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Gender dysphoria was under CACI if certain conditions were met, including no comorbitities, stable treatment, etc., otherwise deferral. So likely now it will always result in deferral.
 
UTLonghorn_1979 said:
I think that’s a pretty common relationship to everyone’s human experience.

Most just handle it better.

I think it’s something more than that. Just thankful I don’t deal with anything beyond work/performance based anxiety.
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I have a friend who is a lawyer and one of his specialties is dealing with gender marker changes (I think that's the term, not sure) in a VERY red state. He must be good because he's surprisingly successful.

As a result, he is also exposed to a lot of transgender people, many of whom suffer a lot of abuse over it. He posted on Facebook this week "I wish people could experience the unadulterated fear that our clients are experiencing. I am grieving."

I think it's one thing to handle general "my parents are disappointed in me for poor decisions" lack of support versus "my parents said I am dead to them and won't recognize who I am and the entire government says I shouldn't even exist" lack of support... As well as the current demonization from those in power. But as a white cishet dude, I have no idea what that's like.
 
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flyingcheesehead said:
I have a friend who is a lawyer and one of his specialties is dealing with gender marker changes (I think that's the term, not sure) in a VERY red state. He must be good because he's surprisingly successful.

As a result, he is also exposed to a lot of transgender people, many of whom suffer a lot of abuse over it. He posted on Facebook this week "I wish people could experience the unadulterated fear that our clients are experiencing. I am grieving."

I think it's one thing to handle general "my parents are disappointed in me for poor decisions" lack of support versus "my parents said I am dead to them and won't recognize who I am" lack of support... As well as the current demonization from those in power. But as a white cishet dude, I have no idea what that's like.
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Someone else in this thread mentioned this, but transgender people are not the only people who suffer from abuse. What you are talking about are just really crappy parents, one of the many things that can cross racial/gender/political divides. "my parents said I am dead to them and won't recognize who I am" is a phrase said by many who do not suffer from gender dysphoria but instead from a bad relationship with their folks.


On the actual topic of the thread. I saw somewhere else someone mention that this likely just means that these pilots will need to go through OKC like many who suffer from mental conditions. And looking at the "stats" for gender dysphoria I think thats the proper route. It really just highlights more of the medical inconsistencies, that someone with gender dysphoria could get quick AME approval, while someone with mild anxiety needs to go through the extended process. Though I would prefer it all be streamlined.
 
Lindberg said:
Or no additional revision coming. It's not mentioned at all in the 2025 AME Guide.
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Actually, it was mentioned in the 2025 Guide. Not sure which is more problematic.

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midlifeflyer said:
Actually, it was mentioned in the 2025 Guide. Not sure which is more problematic.

View attachment 137490
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I have no idea how one has “no evidence of a mental health diagnosis…” when they have gender dysphoria…

Sorry, but thinking or feeling you’re in the wrong body is just that. I’m not saying that’s a bad, or good, thing, it’s just a fact.
 
AKiss20 said:
First they came for the trans pilots, and I did not speak out…
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I never understand these types of documents.
By removing the guidance, doesn't that just mean trans will be treated like everyone else? What am I missing?
 
I am sorry, but the myriad of health issues that are roadblocked by FAA medical, I think this one is acceptable to subject to said roadblocks.
 
JOhnH said:
I never understand these types of documents.
By removing the guidance, doesn't that just mean trans will be treated like everyone else? What am I missing?
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if you get a steroid treatment because your knee cartilage is worthless, the FAA will look at the medical reason and the timing of the treatments. But now, there may not be any recognized legitimate explanation for the treatments, so it’s just using drugs for no reason whatsoever.

Is that “treated like everyone else”?
 
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