Gender dysphoria is a condition in which a person feels there is a mis-match between their biological sex and their gender identity.
Biological sex means the sex that you were born with. It is determined by the presence of sex organs. These are:
- the testes in males
- the ovaries in females
Gender identity is your personal sense of which gender you belong to. For example, if a person sees themselves as female, then their gender identity is female.
For most people, their biological sex and gender identity are the same. However, some people experience a mis-match between them, and this is called gender dysphoria.
Gender dysphoria is a recognised medical condition. It can be a complex condition, and it affects different people in different ways. It is not a mental illness.
Gender dysphoria has no bearing on a person’s sexuality. Just like anyone else, a person with gender dysphoria may be hetrosexual, homosexual, or bisexual.
Cross-dressers (Transvestites)
Some people choose to occasionally dress as members of the ‘opposite’ sex, while not choosing to live full-time as a member of that sex. These people can be called cross-dressers, or transvestites.
Some cross dressing is associated with sexual arousal, and this kind of cross dressing can be called tranvestism. For other people, cross dressing is not associated with sexual arousal, and this can be called dual-role transvestism.
Transssexual people
Transsexual people or trans people have strong and long-lasting feelings of gender dysphoria.
Trannssexual people can be biological males who gender identify as females, or biological females who gender identify as males. Some transsexual people do not gender identify as either male or female, but feel they are both, or somewhere in between.
Many transsexual people seek to change their biological sex using hormone treatment and surgery. This is often known as “transitioning”.
A person who seeks to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone transition may be known as:
- a trans man (female to male)
- a trans woman (male to female)
