Sex assigned at birth - meaning and definition

At a glance

• It is a record made shortly after birth, usually by a midwife, doctor or registrar.
• The assignment is normally based on a quick look at the body, not on chromosome or hormone tests.
• The wording describes an event in the past without saying who the person is now.
• For most people it matches their gender identity, but for trans and some non-binary people it does not.
• For some intersex people the assignment involved uncertainty or was later revised.

In detail

Not to be confused with

• Gender identity

  Sex assigned at birth is a record made about a person; gender identity is a person's own inner sense of their gender.

Common questions

Related terms

• AFAB and AMABAFAB means assigned female at birth and AMAB means assigned male at birth. They describe the sex recorded at birth without implying anything about a person's gender identity.
• Gender identityA person's deeply felt internal sense of their own gender, for example as a woman, a man, both, neither, or something else.
• IntersexAn umbrella term for people born with physical sex characteristics, such as chromosomes, hormones, internal organs or genitals, that do not fit typical definitions of female or male.
• TransgenderAn umbrella term for people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.
• CisgenderDescribes a person whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth.