In Lithuania, so-called transgenderism is officially defined as a mental disorder. Gender identity is still not legally recognised in Lithuania. In 2019, the World Health Organisation made an unequivocal change to the catalogue of diseases, but this practice is still not followed in Lithuania, although the situation is expected to change within the next two years.

Neither the concepts of transgender nor transsexuality, however they may be defined, have yet to be properly recognised in Lithuania. They do not appear in the current Lithuanian dictionary.

The Lithuanian language does not have separate words for the different aspects of gender, so the English nouns “gender” and “sex” are often translated as “sex”, and sometimes as “biological sex” and “social sex”, which can lead to even more confusion. In the Lithuanian language, two terms are used to define gender: “jis” or “ji”. In English, the expression “they/them” can be used, which in Lithuanian would mean “jūs”, but this expression is plural, which is very confusing and usually rarely used. In order to avoid referring to gender, gender-neutral terms can be used, i.e. words that do not refer to gender, but refer to persons in general, without distinguishing between women or men. Therefore, in accordance with the general principle of respect in oral and written communication in Lithuania, professionals refer to the person as he or she would prefer to be addressed, and if the person does not specify how to be addressed, both terms are used.