When someone’s sexual and reproductive anatomy doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male, they may be described as intersex. Most people are assigned male or female, and this is what’s put on their birth certificates. What’s assigned sex (aka “biological sex”)?Īssigned sex is a label that you’re given at birth based on medical factors, including your hormones, chromosomes, and genitals. It’s a feeling that begins very early in life. Gender identity is how you feel inside and how you express your gender through clothing, behavior, and personal appearance. But instead of being about body parts, it’s more about how you’re expected to act, because of your sex. Each culture has standards about the way that people should behave based on their gender.

Gender is much more complex: It’s a social and legal status, and set of expectations from society, about behaviors, characteristics, and thoughts. Sex is a label - male or female - that you’re assigned by a doctor at birth based on the genitals you’re born with and the chromosomes you have. But they’re actually all different things. It’s common for people to confuse sex, gender, and gender identity. What are the differences between sex, gender, and gender identity? Your biological or assigned sex does not always tell your complete story.

There’s a lot more to being male, female, or any gender than the sex assigned at birth.

Pill identifier v