The World Health Organization no longer classifies transgender people as having a mental condition and is instead listed under "conditions related to sexual health."
The WHO issued a new catalog Monday covering 55,000 diseases, injuries, and causes of death, in which it discreetly recategorized transgenderism, AFP reported.
The new catalog, which still needs to be approved by U.N. member countries, so-called "gender incongruence" is now listed under "conditions related to sexual health" instead of "mental, behavioral and neurodevelopmental disorders."
"We expect (the re-categorisation) will reduce stigma," Lale Say, the coordinator of WHO's department of reproductive health and research, told AFP Tuesday.
WHO says gender incongruence is characterised as a "marked and persistent incongruence between an individual's experienced gender and the assigned sex."
Several new chapters appear in the first update of WHO's International Classification of Diseases catalog since the 1990s, including the one on sexual health.
"We think it will reduce stigma so that it may help better social acceptance for these individuals," Say said, adding that since the catalogue is used by doctors and insurers to determine coverage, the move away from a mental disorder could "even increase access to healthcare".
The document, which member states will be asked to approve during the World Health Assembly in Geneva next May, will take effect from Jan. 1, 2022, if it is adopted.
Several countries have already taken steps to reclassify transgenderism and take it off the list of mental disorders, including France and Denmark.
Say said she thought the text, which is the result of years of discussion among experts, would easily win approval, despite widespread lack of acceptance of transgender people in many parts of the world.
WHO's latest catalog also has a new chapter on traditional medicine, which previously went unmentioned, despite being used by millions of people around the world.
It also includes a section on video gaming, recognizing gaming disorder as a pathological condition that can be addictive in the same way as cocaine.