Assigned Male At Birth (AMAB) (also seen as Designated Male At Birth (DMAB) or Male Assigned At Birth (MAAB)) is an assigned gender for people who have external sex traits that were identified as male. It is used as a way to refer to the sex on one's birth certificate or to discuss medical issues that primarily face AMAB people without making assumptions about one's current sex, body, or gender.
When a person is born they are said to be male based on the presence of a penis, or a clitoris over a certain size. The presence of a vagina (the internal structure) is not checked. Some intersex people who were AMAB only discover they have a vagina once they are older. Chromosomes are also not checked, so a person who was AMAB doesn't necessarily have XY chromosomes.
Traits commonly found in those who are AMAB include:
- No vagina or uterus. However, some people who were AMAB were born with one of them (persistent Müllerian duct syndrome).
- A penis or large clitoris. With some intersex conditions, the difference between these can be unclear.
- Descended testes and scrotum, although sometimes testes never descend (cryptorchid), underdeveloped, or are removed later in life.
- The capacity for spermatogenesis unless if sterile, or without some of the anatomy listed above.
- Has testosterone as their natural primary sex hormone.
- Chromosomes that are XY.
AMAB people who were born with all of these traits are considered dyadic, though some dyadic people may loose some of these traits later in life. Not all people who were AMAB were born with all of these traits, in which case they may be considered intersex. Some intersex individuals were AMAB, because they appeared externally male and their condition is not obvious without genetic testing or was not noticed until later in life. Some intersex individuals were coercively assigned male at birth (CAMAB), meaning they were medically altered without their consent to fit the sex binary.
AMAB people are typically raised with the assumption that they will identify as a man, however AMAB people can be any gender and can have any gender presentation. AMAB men are considered cisgender men. Transgender AMAB people are most commonly assumed to be trans women, however non-binary AMAB people can also be considered trans. AMAB people who identify primarily with femininity can be called transfeminine.
Flag
The DMAB 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 AMAB people and trans AMAB people. The yellow and grey stripes represents AMAB people who identify as gender modalities other than cis or trans.
The flag for trans AMAB people was created by an unknown user on or before August 23, 2015.[2] Dark red is for trans women. Light red is for people who identify partially as a women. 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 blue is for people who identify partially as men.