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“Gynandromorphophilia”: a disputed diagnosis

“Gynandromorphophilia” is a disease created in 1993 by two anti-transgender sex researchers. They used it to describe sexual attraction that some men have toward some transgender women. Today, many experts do not like or use this word. They say it is confusing, outdated, and disrespectful.

Background

“Gynandromorphophilia” was created by psychologist Ray Blanchard and psychiatrist Peter Collins in 1993. Both worked at the anti-transgender Clarke Institute in Toronto. They created it to describe a “paraphilia” involving “men with sexual interest in transvestites, transsexuals, and she-males.”

Since then, the only people who promote the disease model “gynandromorphophilia” and the abbreviation “GAMP” have biased views about transgender people. It is mostly used by anti-trans psychologists and gender diverse people who are conservative transmedicalists. The primary promoters are J. Michael Bailey, Paul Vasey, and their graduate students.

Attraction to transgender people is common, and it is not a disease. Transgender pornography is often in the top ten search results for pornography across different platforms and media. About one-fourth of women and one-third of men have reported sexual fantasies involving a transgender person, according to a 2018 survey of 4,175 American adults conducted by Justin Lehmiller for the book Tell Me What You Want.

The term was created by combining two words that are controversial for describing people: gynandromorph + philia, the second part of “paraphilia.”

Gynandromorph

The term gynandromorph has been used in biology since the 19th century to describe bilateral intersex traits and genetic sex mosaics in some insects, arachnids, birds, and crustaceans. Animals that have this trait genetically express a male phenotype on one side of their bodies and a female phenotype on the other side, split vertically down the center.

Gynandromorph has never been used by scientists to describe mammals. Bilateral intersex traits have never been observed by biologists in mammals, including humans.

The 1993 attempt to redefine gynandromorph by Blanchard and Collins has been criticized for its inaccuracy. What Blanchard and Collins are describing is called dorsoventral morphology in animals and superior–inferior morphology in humans, in this case, feminine superior (top) half and masculine inferior (bottom) half. Misusing a scientific term while trying to sound scientific undercuts their credibility.

“Paraphilia“

Clinical descriptions of unusual sexual interests with the suffix –philia date to the 19th century eugenics movement. The term paraphilia was coined in 1904 by Austrian ethnologist Friedrich Salomon Krauss. Krauss used it to describe any sexual behavior that could not result in creating a child. In 1930, Austrian psychoanalyst Wilhelm Stekel used the term in a book that was translated to English in 1950. The term “paraphilia” was then adopted by scientists like G. Evelyn Hutchinson, who in 1958 described “paraphilia” as “the tendency to substitute reproductively non-significant sexual goals for a mate of the opposite sex.”

In the 1966 book The Transsexual Phenomenon, endocrinologist Harry Benjamin proposed a scale that placed trans people on a spectrum between two types: “transsexual” and “transvestite.” This taxonomy reflected earlier ideas published by Magnus Hirschfeld.

The term “paraphilia” was also promoted by sexologist John Money and others as a less stigmatizing replacement for “sexual deviance,” a term used in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM‐I (1952) and DSM‐II (1968). “Sexual deviance” was replaced by the term “paraphilia” in 1980. In 1984, Money and Margaret Lamacz created the disease “gynemimetophilia” to describe people who are attracted to transgender women.

In 1989, Blanchard proposed a controversial taxonomy that divided transgender women by sexuality into two types: “homosexual transsexuals” or “autogynephilic transsexuals.” Since then, “autogynephile” and the acronym “AGP” have become slurs primarily used by anti-transgender activists.

“Gynandromorphophilia” critics

In a 2020 article, social scientists Wendy Ashley and Randy Robertson note:

The medical term gynandromorphophilia evokes disease, or at the very least pathology. However, the term is offensive because it pathologizes trans-attracted men and because it invalidates the lived experiences of these men who love, have relationships and are sexually attracted to trans women. In order to capture the fluid experiences of those who are marginalized, oppressed and isolated by those constructs, it is critical to reconceptualize orientation beyond heteronormative, cisgender and cissexual binaries. 

Psychologist Dallas Denny and author Jamison Green noted in 1996 that clinicians “have invented needlessly complicated terms” and “stigmatizing jargon” like this for the common attraction to transgender people. Tracy Clark-Flory noted in Salon in 2011 that the term “gynandromorphophilia” remains controversial.

Biologist Julia Serano wrote:

Blanchard and other like-minded sex researchers have coined words like Gynandromorphophilia (attraction to trans women), Andromimetophilia (attraction to trans men), Abasiophilia (attraction to people who are physically disabled), Acrotomophilia (attraction to amputees), Gerontophilia (attraction to elderly people), Fat Fetishism (attraction to fat people), etc., and have forwarded them in the medical literature to denote the presumed “paraphilic” nature of such attractions. This tendency reinforces the cultural belief that young, thin, able-bodied cisgender women and men are the only legitimate objects of sexual desire, and that you must be mentally disordered in some way if you are attracted to someone who falls outside of this ideal. It’s bad enough that such cultural norms exist in the first place, but to codify them in the DSM is a truly terrifying prospect.

“Gynandromorphophilia” (“GAMP”) promoters

In the decades since Blanchard and Collins created the disease in 1993, it has not been adopted by scientists and clinicians. Only a small group of people closely linked to Blanchard’s belief system have used the term uncritically in published work, almost all of whom have published other anti-trans views as well. The primary promoters are J. Michael Bailey, Paul Vasey, and their graduate students. The term has been used by authors of several textbooks that frame transgender people or those who love them as having a “disorder,” a “deviance,” a “delusion,” or a “psychopathology.” They include:

  • J. Michael Bailey; The Man Who Would Be Queen (2003)
  • Howard Barbaree: Oxford Textbook of Psychopathology (2009)
  • James Barrett: Transsexual and Other Disorders of Gender Identity (2007)
  • Ray Blanchard: Men with sexual interest in transvestites, transsexuals, and she-males (1993); Oxford Textbook of Psychopathology (2009)
  • Paul H. Blaney: Oxford Textbook of Psychopathology (2009)
  • James Cantor: Oxford Textbook of Psychopathology (2009)
  • Meredith Chivers
  • Julie L. Crouch: Sexual Deviance (2008)
  • Peter Collins: Men with sexual interest in transvestites, transsexuals, and she-males (1993)
  • Cynthia A. Dopke: Sexual Deviance (2008)
  • Robert F. Krueger: Oxford Textbook of Psychopathology (2009)
  • Larry Nuttbrock: Transgender Sex Work and Society (2019)
  • William T. O’Donohue: Sexual Deviance (2008)
  • Lanna J. Petterson
  • G. Eugene Pichler: The Transsexual Delusion (2016)

In the 2013 book Men Trapped in Men’s Bodies, conservative transmedicalist Anne Lawrence summarized the confusion caused by Money and Blanchard’s competing disease models:

Money and Lamacz (1984) coined the term gynemimetophilia to describe a paraphilic sexual attraction to surgically or hormonally feminized men who had not undergone SRS (often called she-males; Blanchard 1993b). Money (1986 p. 262) later broadened the definition of gynemimetophilia to include paraphilic attraction to feminized men who had undergone SRS (i.e. postoperative MtF transsexuals). A few years later, Blanchard and Collins (1993) coined the closely related term gynandromorphophilia, which they used to describe paraphilic sexual attraction to feminized men who had not undergone SRS – a group that included transvestites as well as she-males, but did not include postoperative MtF transsexuals. Thus, those of us who study and describe paraphilias are presented with the confusing situation of having two very similar terms with overlapping but not identical applicability. To summarize: Men with a paraphilic interest in transvestites are properly called gynandromorphophiles. Men with a paraphilic interest in postoperative MtF transsexuals are properly called gynemimetophiles (Money, 1986). Men with a paraphilic interest in she-males are properly called by either term. 

“Autogynandromorphophilia” (AGAMP) promoters

Some “autogynephilia” activists have proposed a disease with another “paraphilic” layer to it: “autogynandromorphophilia,” which they abbreviate AGAMP and claim means attraction to the idea of being a “gynandromorph.” It stands to reason in their model that someone who is attracted to an “autogynandromorphophile” has “autogynandromorphophilophilia,” and someone who is attracted to the idea of being an “autogynandromorphophile” has “autoautogynandromorphophilia,” and so on.

Conclusion

Legitimate science cannot proceed from bias. Scientists have an ethical duty to be responsible in their research. Promoters of “gynandromorphophilia” are biased and irresponsible by promoting stigmatizing diseases and “paraphilic” models of attraction to trans people.

Models that frame attraction to transgender people as a sexual interest or a sexual orientation are more scientifically accurate and value-neutral.

There are a number of value-neutral terms to describe trans women who have breast development or top surgery but have not had bottom surgery, including:

  • Trans women without genital surgery
  • Phallus-retaining trans women
  • Nonoperative trans women (though many trans women prefer terms that do not center surgical status like this)

By describing trans women without using sexualized terms from pornography or disease models created by biased researchers, it becomes possible to describe people who are attracted to these trans women in an unbiased and value-neutral way. Legitimate scientists have already adopted this value-neutral framing by using terms like these:

  • Men attracted to trans women
  • Men Sexually interested in Transwomen (MSTW)
  • Men who have Sex with Transgender Women (MSTW)
  • Cisgender Men who have Sex with Transgender Women (MSTGW) 

References

Press release (March 8, 2023). Study examines straight men and their sexual attraction to transgender women. UC Riverside https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2023/03/08/study-examines-straight-men-and-their-sexual-attraction-transgender-women

West, K., & Borras-Guevara, M. L. (2021). When Cisgender, Heterosexual Men Feel Attracted to Transgender Women: Sexuality-Norm Violations Lead to Compensatory Anti-Gay Prejudice. Journal of Homosexuality, 69(13), 2267–2285. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2021.1938467

Ashley, W., & Robertson, R. (2020). Trans-Attraction: Not Kink or Fetish, but a Legitimate Sexual Orientation*. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 08(10), 212–227. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2020.810014

Downing, Lisa, Morland, Iain, Sullivan, Nikki [editors] (2014). Fuckology: Critical Essays on John Money’s Diagnostic Concepts. University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0226186580

Plett. Casey ( April 11, 2016). Zucker’s ‘Therapy’ Mourned Almost Exclusively By Cis People. Harlot https://harlot.media/articles/2582/zuckers-therapy-mourned-almost-exclusively-by-cis-people

Barnett, Eden (February 28, 2014). QTC Sexualization and Marginalization Lecture Discusses Marginalized Groups. Swarthmore Phoenix https://swarthmorephoenix.com/2014/02/28/qtc-sexualization-and-marginalization-lecture-discusses-marginalized-groups/

Clark-Flory, Tracy (October 21, 2011 ). What’s behind transsexual attraction? Salon https://www.salon.com/2011/10/21/whats_behind_transsexual_attraction/

Serano, Julia (2008–). Transgender Psychology, Diagnoses, Theories, and Healthcare. https://www.juliaserano.com/TSetiology.html

Firestein, Beth. Bisexuality: the psychology and politics of an invisible minority. Sage Publications, 1996 ISBN 9780803972735

Anti-trans lay coverage

“Orlando” (January 9, 2024). The Truth about Trans. Genspect https://genspect.org/the-truth-about-trans/

Dolan, Eric W. (April 7, 2023). Gynandromorph research offers insight into the complexities of male sexual attraction. PsyPost https://www.psypost.org/gynandromorph-research-offers-insight-into-the-complexities-of-male-sexual-attraction/

Anti-trans “academic” coverage

Heatlie, L.C., Petterson, L.J. Vasey, P.L. (2025). Heterosexual Men’s Visual Attention to Nude Images Depicting Cisgender Males, Cisgender Females, and Gynandromorphs. Archives of Sexual Behavior 54, 2893–2905. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-023-02657-9

Morandini, J.S., Hsu, K.J. Rudd, S. (2025). Autogynephilia in Some Bisexual Cisgender Men. Archives of Sexual Behavior 54, 2991–3004 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-025-03166-7

Lemma, A. (2024). On Not Having it All: Exploring the Fetishization of Trans Women by Heterosexual Men. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 73(3), 301–326. https://doi.org/10.1177/00030651241263929

Halwani, R. (2023). Sexual Orientations, Sexual Preferences, and Well-Being. In Social Theory and Practice, 49(3), 463–489. https://doi.org/10.5840/soctheorpract2023623197

Heatlie, L. C., Petterson, L. J., Vasey, P.L. (2023). Heterosexual men’s pupillary responses to stimuli depicting cisgender males, cisgender females, and gynandromorphs. Biological Psychology, 178, 108518. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2023.108518

Petterson, L. J., Vasey, P.L. (2022). Men’s Sexual Interest in Feminine Trans Individuals across Cultures. The Journal of Sex Research, 59(8), 1015–1033. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2021.2013429

Petterson, L.J., Vasey, P.L. (2021) Samoan Men’s Sexual Attraction and Viewing Time Response to Male-to-Feminine Transgender and Cisgender Adults. Archives of Sexual Behavior  50, 873–884. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01905-6

Feierman, J.R. (2020). Sexual abuse of young boys in the Roman Catholic Church: An insider clinician’s academic perspective. in Anthony J. Blasi, Lluis Oviedo [editors] The Abuse of Minors in the Catholic Church: Dismantling the Culture of Cover Ups. Routledge, ISBN 978-1003002567

Petterson, Lanna J. (2020). Male Sexual Orientation: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. [dissertation supervised by Paul Vasey] https://www.proquest.com/openview/01177d233fb2af52fd9c66a7df1b2c45/1

Ware, J. Research Topics Inhibited by Transgender Paradigm. Archives of Sexual Behavior 49, 2237–2238 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01758-z

Rosenthal, A.M., Hsu, K.J. Bailey, J. M. (2017). Who Are Gynandromorphophilic Men? An Internet Survey of Men with Sexual Interest in Transgender Women. Archives of Sexual Behavior 46, 255–264. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-016-0872-6

Hsu, K. J., Rosenthal, A. M., Miller, D. I., Bailey, J. M. (2016). Sexual Arousal Patterns of Autogynephilic Male Cross-Dressers. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 46(1), 247–253. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-016-0826-z

Semon, T. L., Hsu, K. J., Rosenthal, A. M., Bailey, J. M. (2016). Bisexual Phenomena Among Gay-Identified Men. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 46(1), 237–245. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-016-0849-5

Pichler, G. Eugene (2016). The Transsexual Delusion, p. 131. Lulu, ISBN 9781365237249

Hsu, K. J., Rosenthal, A. M., Miller, D. I., Bailey, J. M. (2015). Who are gynandromorphophilic men? Characterizing men with sexual interest in transgender women. Psychological Medicine, 46(4), 819–827. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291715002317

Vasey, P., VanderLaan, D. (2015). Transgendered Male Androphilia in the Human Ancestral Environment. In: Shackelford, T., Hansen, R. (eds) The Evolution of Sexuality. Evolutionary Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09384-0_9

Vasey, P., VanderLaan, D. (2015). Evolutionary Developmental Perspectives on Male Androphilia in Humans. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Welling, L., Shackelford, T. (eds) Evolutionary Perspectives on Social Psychology. Evolutionary Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12697-5_26

Vasey, P. L., VanderLaan, D. P. (2014). Evolving research on the evolution of male androphilia. The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 23(3), 137–147. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhs.23.3-co1

Cantor, J. M., Klein, C., Lykins, A., Rullo, J. E., Thaler, L., & Walling, B. R. (2013). A Treatment-Oriented Typology of Self-Identified Hypersexuality Referrals. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 42(5), 883–893. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-013-0085-1

Milner, J.S.; Dopke C.A.; Crouch J.L. (2012). Chapter 22: Paraphilia Not Otherwise Specified. In Laws, D.R. and O’Donohue W.T. [editors] Sexual Deviance: Theory, Assessment, and Treatment (2nd edition). The Guilford Press, ISBN 978-1609184155

Lawrence, A.A. (2012). Other Aspects of Autogynephilic Sexuality. In: Men Trapped in Men’s Bodies. Springer, ISBN ‎978-1461451815 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5182-2_9

Escoffier, J. (2011). Imagining the She/Male: Pornography and the Transsexualization of the Heterosexual Male. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 12(4), 268–281. https://doi.org/10.1080/15240657.2011.610230

  • Zeavin, L. (2011). [reply] Imagining the She/Male: Pornography and the Transsexualization of the Heterosexual Male: Psychoanalytic Reflections. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 12(4), 282–287. https://doi.org/10.1080/15240657.2011.610238

Cantor, James; Blanchard, Ray; Barbaree, Howard (2009). Chapter 20: Sexual Disorders. In Blaney, Paul H.; Millon, Theodore [editors]. Oxford Textbook of Psychopathology. Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195374216

Barrett, James (2007). Chapter 5: Categorisation and differential diagnosis. In Transsexual and Other Disorders of Gender Identity. CRC Press, ISBN 978-1315377605

Chivers, M., Blanchard, R. (1996). Prostitution advertisements suggest association of transvestism and masochism. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 22(2), 97–102. https://doi.org/10.1080/00926239608404913

Blanchard, R., Collins, P. I. (1993). Men with sexual interest in transvestites, transsexuals, and she-males. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 181(9), 570–575. https://doi.org/10.1097/00005053-199309000-00008

Blanchard, R. (1989). The concept of autogynephilia and the typology of male gender dysphoria. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 177 (10): 616–623. https://doi.org/10.1097%2F00005053-198910000-00004

Blanchard, R. (1985). Typology of male-to-female transsexualism. Archives of Sexual Behavior 14 (3): 247–261. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01542107

Money, J., Lamacz, M. (1984). Gynemimesis and gynemimetophilia: Individual and cross-cultural manifestations of a gender-coping strategy hitherto unnamed. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 25(4), 392–403. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-440x(84)90074-9

Benjamin, Harry (1966). The Transsexual Phenomenon. The Julian Press, ISBN 978-0446824262

Media

SciShow (September 11, 2014). Gynandromorphs: Dual-Sex Animals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAdTyk_fbBM

  • Video about the legitimate use of the term gynandromorph in biology

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)