Assigned Female At Birth (AFAB) (also seen as Designated Female At Birth (DFAB) or Female Assigned At Birth (FAAB)) is an assigned gender for people who have external sex traits that are identified as female. It is used as a way to refer to the sex on one's birth certificate or to discuss medical issues that primarily face AFAB people without making assumptions about one's current sex, body, or gender identity.
When a person is born, they are said to be female based on the absence of a penis, or a clitoris smaller than a certain size. The presence of a vagina (the internal structure) is not checked. Some intersex people who were AFAB only discover they don't have a vagina once they are older. Chromosomes are also not checked, so a person who was AFAB doesn't necessarily have XX chromosomes.
Traits commonly found in those who are AFAB include:
- A vulva and vagina (POV), unless they are intersex or had them removed later in life.
- A uterus and ovaries, unless if they were born without one or both (agenesis), or had them removed later in life.
- The capacity for ovogenesis/the ability to give birth (PWIB), unless if sterile or without some of the anatomy listed above.
- Breasts (a secondary sexual characteristic), unless if they never developed, or they had them removed.
- Has estrogen as their natural primary sex hormone.
- Chromosomes that are XX.
AFAB people who were born with all of these traits are considered dyadic or müllerian, though some dyadic people may lose some of these characteristics later in life. Not all people who were AFAB were born with all of these traits, in which case they may be considered intersex. Some intersex individuals were AFAB, because they appeared externally female and their condition is not obvious without genetic testing or was not noticed until later in life. Some intersex individuals were coercively assigned female at birth (CAFAB), meaning they were medically altered without their consent to fit the sex binary.
AFAB people are typically raised with the assumption that they will identify as a woman, however AFAB people can be any gender and can have any gender presentation. AFAB women are considered cisgender women. Transgender AFAB people are most commonly assumed to be trans men, however non-binary AFAB people can also be considered trans. AFAB people who identify primarily with masculinity can be called transmasculine.
Flag
The DFAB flag was created by arco-pluris on the Tumblr blog beyond-mogai-pride-flags on October 15, 2020.[1] The blue and red stripes represent cis AFAB people and trans AFAB people. The green and purple stripes represents AFAB people who identify as gender modalities other than cis or trans.
An alternate flag was created by Tumblr user plurgai on February 19, 2021.[2] It has no known meaning.
The flag for trans AFAB people was created by an unknown user on or before August 23, 2015.[3] Dark blue is for trans men. Light blue is for people who identify partially as a men. White is for agender people, and anyone who lies outside of the male/female spectrum (abinary). Purple is for people who identify as men and women, or are in between men and women (androgyne/ambinary). Light red is for people who identify partially as women.