Transgender information

Discover the concepts of sex and gender and the diverse ways men and women knowledge them.

By Mayo Clinic Workers

Want to greater comprehend what it indicates to be transgender? Here is a primer on the basics, as properly as the definitions of popular phrases utilised to describe gender identity.

Defining transgender

The phrase “transgender” encompasses a lot more than you may realize. It covers a range of gender identities and expressions that may tumble outdoors of the plan that all men and women can be labeled as only a single of two genders — male or woman (gender binary).

Transgender is an umbrella term utilised to seize the spectrum of gender identity and gender-expression range. Gender identity is the inside sense of being male, woman, neither or both. Gender expression — generally an extension of gender identity — involves the expression of a person’s gender identity through social roles, overall look and behaviors.

People today who are transgender involve:

  • Those people who have a gender identity that differs from the sex assigned to them at delivery
  • Those people whose gender expression — the way gender is conveyed to other folks through outfits, conversation, mannerisms and interests — and habits really don’t adhere to stereotypical societal norms for the sex assigned to them at delivery
  • Those people who detect and categorical their gender fluidly outdoors of the gender binary, which may or may not involve hormonal or surgical processes

The partnership among gender identity and sexual orientation

Being transgender isn’t going to say or suggest nearly anything about a person’s sexual orientation — actual physical and emotional attraction or sexual habits. Sexual orientation is an inherent ingredient of every single individual. A person’s sexual orientation can not be assumed primarily based on gender identity or gender expression.

Comprehension gender dysphoria

Gender dysphoria is the feeling of pain or distress that may accompany a variance among gender identity, sex assigned at delivery or sex-connected actual physical features. This form of distress isn’t going to have an effect on anyone who is transgender.

Gender dysphoria is shown in the Diagnostic and Statistical Handbook of Psychological Problems (DSM-5), a handbook posted by the American Psychiatric Association to diagnose mental situations. Gender dysphoria is a analysis that is specified to people who are encountering pain or distress owing to the variance among gender identity, sex assigned at delivery or sex-connected actual physical features.

Understanding practical phrases

Other phrases that may come up in a dialogue about being transgender involve:

  • Cisgender. This term is utilised to describe an individual whose gender identity and expression matches the stereotypical societal features connected to sex assigned at delivery.
  • Cross-dressing. This involves dressing as the other gender for amusement or satisfaction. Cross-dressing is just not always a indication of a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation. Cross-dressing also is just not indicative of gender dysphoria.
  • Gender fluidity. This is the exhibition of a variability of gender identity and expression. Gender fluid men and women really don’t feel restricted by usual societal norms and anticipations and may detect and categorical by themselves as masculine, female or alongside a spectrum, and quite possibly with versions above time.
  • Gender nonconforming. This occurs when gender expression, gender roles or both vary from societal norms and anticipations for an individual’s sex assigned at delivery.
  • Gender purpose. This term refers to the societal norms and anticipations affiliated with a person’s sex assigned at delivery.
  • Sexual minority worry. This is worry connected to societal stigma, prejudice and discrimination toward people with diverse gender identity and expression.
  • Trans gentleman and trans girl. These phrases are utilised to describe, in a gender binary method, a transgender individual’s gender identity or expression. For case in point, the term “trans girl” is utilised for an individual whose sex at delivery was assigned male and whose gender identity is woman. Having said that, not all transgender people use these phrases to describe by themselves.

If you have even further questions about gender identity, consider checking out sources these types of as The Fenway Institute or the Center of Excellence for Transgender Wellbeing at the College of California, San Francisco.