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Transsexual vs Intersex - What's the difference?

transsexual | intersex |

As adjectives the difference between transsexual and intersex

is that transsexual is (of a person) being a while intersex is (of an individual) having characteristics of both sexes.

As nouns the difference between transsexual and intersex

is that transsexual is one who has changed or is in the process of changing their physical sex (because it did not match their desired sex) by undergoing medical treatment such as hormone replacement therapy (hrt) and/or sex reassignment surgery (srs) while intersex is any of a variety of conditions (in a dioecious species) whereby an individual has male and female sex characteristics.

transsexual

English

Alternative forms

* transexual (rare)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (of a person) Being a .
  • Synonyms

    * transsex (less common), transsexed (uncommon)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One who has changed or is in the process of changing their physical sex (because it did not match their desired sex) by undergoing medical treatment such as hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and/or sex reassignment surgery (SRS).
  • * {{quote-video, year=1995, title=
  • , passage=When a man is a woman trapped in a man's body, and has a little operation, he is a transsexual .}}
  • * Myra Love, Reality’s Friends'', excerpted in Gertrude M. James Gonzalez and Anne J. M. Mamary (editors), ''Cultural Activisms: Poetic Voices, Political Voices , SUNY Press (1999), ISBN 978-0-7914-3965-4, page 107:
  • He claimed that they had this wonderful and loving relationship in which the transsexual -to-be had felt that his suitor truly loved him the way he was and didn’t want him to have the surgery,
  • * 2003 December 9, Kitty Fine, “How to Tell If Your Fella Wants to Be a Woman!”, in , ISSN 0199-574X, page 14:
  • Hundreds of women every year are taken completely by surprise when their husbands announce they want to undergo sex-change surgery — and the news is even more shocking when comes, as it often does, from a burly he-man who’d given no clue to his inner girl. ¶ But the signs are definitely there if your husband is dreaming of becoming a transsexual , says a new study by a top sexologist.
  • * anonymous, “My Husband’s Secret”, in Grandma Joy, Grandma Joy's Hope for Hurting Women: Healing the Wounds of the Past and Gaining Hope for the Future , Destiny Image Publishers (2006), ISBN 978-0-7684-2351-8, page 133:
  • He was wearing women’s clothes before he had the surgery; then, he actually became a transsexual , and they (amazingly) stayed together.

    Usage notes

    * It may be inappropriate to refer to or describe a transsexual person as "a transsexual"; compare "a black", "a gay". "A transsexual man" (for a man who is biologically female, or was biologically female prior to sex reassignment) or "a transsexual woman" (for the reverse) is frequently more appropriate.

    Synonyms

    * TS * transperson

    Hyponyms

    * transman (female-to-male transsexual ) * transwoman (male-to-female transsexual )

    Derived terms

    * transsexualism * transsexuality

    See also

    * male-to-female * female-to-male * intersexual, intersex * transvestite

    intersex

    Noun

    (es)
  • Any of a variety of conditions (in a dioecious species) whereby an individual has male and female sex characteristics.
  • * 1953 , Time , 23 Feb 1953:
  • A Canadian believes that he has solved the diagnostic problem in human intersex . All human cells, says Dr. Murray L. Barr of the University of Western Ontario, contain something called sex chromatin.
  • * 2003 , Andrew J Lawrence et al., Effects of Pollution on Fish , p. 204:
  • A much more common condition caused by early exposure of fish larvae to oestrogenic substances is intersex , which in males usually takes the form of ovotestis.
  • * 2008 , Emine Saner, The Guardian , 30 Jul 2008, G2, p. 12:
  • It is thought that around one in 1,000 babies are born with an "intersex " condition, the general term for people with chromosomal abnormalities.
  • (biology, zoology) An individual with any of these conditions.
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • * 2009 , Mary C Smith & David Sherman, Goat Medicine , p. 609:
  • An intersex , then, is an animal that shows both male and female characteristics.

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (of an individual) Having characteristics of both sexes.
  • * 2006 , Alice Domurate Dreger, “Intersex and Human Rights: The Long View”, in Sharon E. Sytsma (editor), Ethics and Intersex , Springer, ISBN 978-1-4020-4313-0, page 81:
  • If you would not obfuscate the medical history of a person who was born without intersex, then you ought not to do so when dealing with a person born intersex .
  • * 2006 , Dean Spade, “Compliance Is Gendered: Struggling for Gender Self-Determination in a Hostile Economy”, Paisley Currah et al. (editors), Transgender Rights , University of Minnesota Press, ISBN 978-0-8166-4312-7, page 225:
  • His confidentiality was broken, and soon the entire staff and residential population were aware that Jim was intersex'. we faced the fact that most programs were gender segregated and would not be a safe place for Jim to be known as ' intersex .
  • * 2010 , Sean Saifa Wall, “I am the ‘I’”, in Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman (editors), Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation , Seal Press, ISBN 978-1-58005-308-2, page 109:
  • When I had learned that I was intersex , I brought this issue to my mother.
  • * 2010 , The Age , 3 Jun 2010:
  • A survey of 1100 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) people by Griffith and Bond University researchers found that the overwhelming majority had been victims of targeted harassment as well as physical and sexual abuse.

    Usage notes

    * Recently the term intersex'' has been preferred to ''hermaphrodite as being more scientifically and politically correct.

    Synonyms

    * indeterminate, X (passports and identification documents) * hermaphroditic * intersexed * intersexual * pseudohermaphroditic

    Derived terms

    * intersexed * intersexuality

    See also

    * gender ambiguity * hermaphroditism * pseudohermaphroditism