Gender Dysphoria

The distress a person feels when their gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. Dysphoria can be physical (discomfort with one's body or its characteristics) or social (distress from being seen, named, or treated as a gender one is not).

Dysphoria exists on a spectrum — from mild unease to severe, debilitating distress — and it can be constant or come in waves. It is not required to be trans: many trans and non-binary people experience more gender euphoria than dysphoria, and some experience none at all.

What relieves dysphoria varies by person: social transition, medical transition, changing name and pronouns, or community connection. Dysphoria itself is not a mental illness; the distress comes from the mismatch between identity and the world, not from the identity itself.