Table 1.

Glossary

Assigned gender: the initial gender attributed to an individual after birth; for most individuals, this corresponds to the sex on their original birth certificate, aka assigned gender, birth sex.*

Cisgender: a term for individuals whose experienced and expressed gender are congruent with their gender assigned at birth, that is, those who are not transgender.

Experienced gender: one's sense of belonging or not belonging to a particular gender, aka gender identity.

Expressed gender: how one expresses one's experienced gender.

Gender: a person's social status as male (boy/man) or female (girl/woman), or alternative category.*

Gender-affirming surgery: surgical procedures intended to alter a person's body to affirm their experienced gender identity, aka sex reassignment surgery, gender reassignment surgery, and gender-confirming surgery.

Gender assignment: assignment of a gender to an individual. In typically developed newborns, the initial gender assignment (aka “birth-assigned gender”) is usually made on the basis of the appearance of the external genitalia.

Gender binary: a gender-categorization system limited to the two options, male and female. Individuals who identify outside the gender binary may use a variety of gender identity labels, including genderqueer or nonbinary.

Gender dysphoria (not capitalized): distress caused by the discrepancy between one's experienced/expressed gender and one's assigned gender and/or primary or secondary sex characteristics.

Gender Dysphoria (GD) (capitalized): a diagnostic category in DSM-5, with specific diagnoses defined by age group-specific sets of criteria. This article addresses only GD in adults.

Gender identity: one's identity as belonging or not belonging to a particular gender, whether male, female, or a nonbinary alternative, aka experienced gender.

Gender Identity Disorder (GID) a diagnostic category in DSM-III and DSM-IV that was replaced in DSM-5 by GD.

Gender incongruence (not capitalized): incongruence between experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender, and/or psychical gender characteristics.

Gender Incongruence (capitalized): a diagnostic category (analogous to GD in DSM-5) proposed for ICD-11.

Gender role: cultural/societal definition of the roles of males and females (or of alternative genders).

Gender transition: the process through which individuals alter their gender expression and/or sex characteristics to align with their sense of gender identity.

Gender variance: any variation of experienced or expressed gender from socially ascribed norms within the gender binary.

Gendered behavior: behavior in which males and females differ on average.

Genderqueer: an identity label used by some individuals whose experienced and/or expressed gender does/do not conform to the male/female binary or who reject the gender binary.

Intersex conditions: a subset of the somatic conditions known as “disorders of sex development” or “differences of sex development “in which chromosomal sex is inconsistent with genital sex, or in which the genital or gonadal sex is not classifiable as either male or female. Some individuals who report their identity as “intersex” do not have a verifiable intersex condition.

Sex: a person's categorization as biologically male or female, usually on the basis of the genitals and reproductive tract.*

Sex assigned at birth: the sex or gender first assigned to an individual after birth. Also known as “natal gender,” “birth-assigned sex,” and “gender assigned at birth.” Often queried as “What sex was listed on your original birth certificate?”

Sexual orientation: a person's pattern of sexual attraction and physiological arousal to others of the same, other, both, or neither sex. Sexual orientation cannot be inferred from one's gender identity. As a show of respect, we recommend that the sexual orientation of transgender individuals be expressed in relation to their gender identity rather than their gender assigned at birth; however, all gender scholars do not follow that convention. Ambiguity in charting can be avoided by using terms such as sexually attracted to men, women, both, or neither.

**Transgender: an umbrella term usually referring to persons whose experienced or expressed gender does not conform to normative social expectations based on the gender they were assigned at birth.

**Transsexual: a term often reserved for the subset of transgender individuals who desire to modify, or have modified, their bodies through hormones or surgery to be more congruent with their experienced gender.

^*On official documents such as birth certificates, driver's licenses, and passports, the traditional category “sex” is equivalent to “gender” in current psychological terminology.

^**“Trans” (also “Trans^*”) More recent umbrella terms being increasingly used to avoid distinguishing between transgender and transsexual individuals.

DSM, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; GD, Gender Dysphoria; GID, Gender Identity Disorder; ICD, International Classification of Diseases.