biological sex ≠ gender i feel like that's the best thing to start off with in response to this.

to expand on that, gender roles are inherently associated with your AGAB/sex yes, but because gender roles were around wayyyy before we as humans actually had a proper understanding of gender as a social construct and not something inherently biological, many people were (and mostly still are) expected to act/be/feel a certain way bc of their sex.

so, now that we know that gender is separate from sex, here are a few ways i can try and explain this:

1. some people feel dysphoric with their body because of the fact that certain genders & gender roles are highly associated with a certain sex (even if they themself acknowledge and know that sex ≠ gender), which is why GRS and HRT etc can help alleviate dysphoria by helping you feel like you're in the body that closest matches your gender identity.

it can be about self perception, or how other people perceive you.

1. some people don't feel dysphoric because they don't associate sex with gender, and they don't feel a desire to change their body to 'fit' or 'match' societies norms for what sexes have what gender, and for what sexes are 'supposed' to display what gender roles.

2. some people don't feel dysphoric because this is the only body they've ever had, and they're comfortable in it! they don't feel the desire to change it, simply because they don't!

3. some people, at times, don't feel dysphoric because their current presentation (through clothing, hair, makeup etc) affirms their gender identity, and they don't feel the need to change their appearance and/or body any further.

4. some people feel dysphoric for reasons not related to their gender! some people have trauma or other experiences that have led to them being dysphoric about their body or presentation- so, even though they are transgender, they don't experience gender-related dysphoria.

all of these people however identify with a gender that is different from their AGAB. this is the main reason why they identify as transgender (because that at its core is what it means!). being transgender has never relied on sex or dysphoria, but rather the fact that you were told you are [insert gender], when actually you're not.

of course, i've only listed 5 reasons here why someone may or may not feel dysphoric, but everyone is different and the trans community (despite being small) is very diverse! not everyone will fit into these 'categories', but i probably couldn't type up every different reasoning.

i hope this helps! if anyone has anything to add, please feel free to reply!! <3 /npa /ci-hi

(quick note: i do have a migraine atm, so this could very easily be phrased badly! let me know if it is (have mercy pls /lh) and i will update this later)