Caitlyn Jenner Wants To Clear Up This Misconception About Gender Confirmation Surgery

RELATED: 5 Transgender Celebrities Who Are Breaking Barriers And Making History

“I don’t have the appetite for [sex], which is why the public’s obsession over whether I would [get gender confirmation surgery] is annoying to me,” Caitlyn writes in an excerpt from The Secrets of My Life exclusively shared with People. “It hearkens back to this misperception that people transition because of their sexual desires.”

The craziest things you never knew about the female anatomy:

In fact, an individual’s reasons for transitioning can be completely separate from the gender identity of the people they are attracted to.

“Many people still find it difficult to understand the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity,” says Nick Adams, director of GLAAD‘s Transgender Media Program. “Sexual orientation is about who you are attracted to and want to spend the rest of your life with. Gender identity is about who you are—your internal sense of yourself as a man or a woman. For transgender people, their gender identity doesn’t match the sex they were assigned at birth, so they may undergo medical transition to bring their bodies into alignment with their gender identity. This is about feeling whole and ensuring that the world sees you as the person you know yourself to be. It is not about sexual orientation or who you’re attracted to.”

SIGN UP FOR WOMEN’S HEALTH’S NEWSLETTER, SO THIS HAPPENED, TO GET THE DAY’S TRENDING STORIES AND HEALTH STUDIES.

Overall, Caitlyn says she’s happy with the results of her surgery and feels “not only wonderful but liberated.” She told People: “Transitioning is about nothing else but your soul. You are no more a woman the day after [the surgery] than the day before, okay?”

And, as she’s made it clear, her surgery has nothing to do with her sex life. Caitlyn has been romantically involved with women in the past (she’s been married three times, most notably to Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner), but she isn’t sure what the future will bring.

“A future female companion? I think about that. A future female sexual companion? Not happening, at least for now, and perhaps not ever,” Caitlyn wrote in a section of the book that People says was written prior to her gender confirmation surgery. “A future male sexual companion? I have never had the inclination. But maybe that attitude might possibly change.”