What happens in Gender Identity Assessments ?

What does the Rorschach test have to do with gender dysphoria?

Dr Mohan doesn’t ask for the Rorschach test for gender dysphoria. Rorschach is an inkblot test that shows a random abstract figure that you have to describe to the psychiatrist and then they will give you their observations. So Dr Mohan believes in an interview where you can talk to the person clearly and find out rather than trying to unravel something that they did not even know as they saw it and it came up. Leave alone for gender dysphoria, Dr Mohan doesn’t believe in using it. Sometimes when you can’t make a diagnosis clearly and you do a Rorschach then the results would become more complicated. As what the patient tells you is what will come up. So it is not necessary for a diagnosis so Dr Mohan does not use that. And no guidelines state that a Rorschach test is necessary to come to a conclusion. 

What is a Gender Identity Assessment scale?

There are assessment scales for practically everything but Dr Mohan tries not to use them. Standardised scales are not to be used. For example, OCD has several scales that one can use. It is not used routinely in clinical practice but if there is some research for drug therapy and psychotherapy and there is a routine check as to what is going on then those scales can be used to have valid results. There are assessment scales for depression and anxiety. But in a clinic these tests are impractical. Saying you have got 17 out of 35 and that would lead to depression. Rather talking and finding out if one has mild, moderate or severe depression is what matters on a scale. Scales are used in research. Either for assessment in a large-scale study or when you are giving an intervention and you are assessing it at various points in time. Scales come in handy when non-professionals are using them. For example, if there is a large group of people being screened for depression and someone who isn’t trained in using the scale for assessment then they can be taught about the scale. So in routine questions, the scale isn’t used because most of the questions would’ve been used in the scale itself.