G is for Gender Dysphoria and Euphoria - a podcast by Dr. Lori Beth Bisbey - A to Z of Sex

G is for Gender Dysphoria and Euphoria
 Welcome to the A to Z of Sex. I’m Dr Lori Beth and I am your host.  We are working our way through the erotic alphabet one letter at a time.  Just a reminder this podcast deals with adult content, so if you don’t have total privacy, you might want to put on your headphones.  Today the letter is G and G is for Gender Dysphoria and Gender Euphoria.
 Dysphoria is defined as ‘a state of unease or general dissatisfaction with life’.  When it is applied to gender it is literally unease or general dissatisfaction with your gender.    Gender is not the same as your biological sex though many of us identify as the gender that matches our biological sex.    There are two biological sexes: male and female.  Some people are also born intersex which is being born with anatomy that doesn’t fit the typical for male or female bodies.  Some people have both male and female anatomy for example.  
Gender is socially constructed.  Gender is how we feel and see ourselves.  For many years, male and female were the only genders recognised.  Now, we know that gender falls on a spectrum and that even people who are happy with their assigned gender at birth matching their biological sex can move along the spectrum at different parts in their lives.  I am a biological woman and I see my gender as female and I have always identified as female.  However, at some points in my life I have felt very feminine and at others, I have felt much more masculine.   Gender can be fluid.  Some people identify as female sometimes and male at other times.  The do not see themselves as transgender necessarily because the way they identify moves along the spectrum between male and female.    
Some people feel they are neither male nor female and others feel they are both male and female.  Some of these people use the label genderqueer to refer to themselves.  Within the medical and psychological communities, these people are often called gender non-conforming.  This term also includes people who are transgender and gender fluid. 
People who identify as transgender are the people who are most likely to be identified as gender dysphoric.  They often feel they were born into the wrong body.  Some of them choose to go through the process to change biological sex fully.  Others take hormones and change some of their sexual and gender characteristics.  Others choose to stay in the body they were born into despite feeling that it isn’t the right sex. 
People who have gender dysphoria feel very strongly that their gender does not match their biology.  This is not a mental illness.  When someone experiences this dysphoria, it causes stress, anxiety and depression.  In some cases people feel suicidal as a result of the mismatch between gender and biology.   
People who identify as gender fluid or non-gendered also experience gender dysphoria.  They may find this harder to express, particularly to people who are CIS gendered and not fluid.  Gender fluid folk find that their gender feelings and expression move around the male through to female spectrum.  Some people identify as non-gendered and don’t identify with the spectrum at all. 
Gender euphoria is defined as feeling happy and comfortable with their gender.  This has traditionally been applied to CIS gendered people (CIS gender = someone whose gender is the same as their assigned sex at birth).  However it can also be applied to transgendered people.  Gender euphoria for a CIS gendered person is a state of joy and happiness about being male or female and having the associated roles and body parts.  For a transgendered person, it can be a state of happiness or joy from living as their desired gender (or after transition to their desired gender it becomes the same as for a CIS gendered person). 
Significant dysphoria is experienced when the wrong pronouns are used.  For some transgendered people, their first experience of gender euphoria comes

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