# Understanding the harmonisation of LPS gender variables
>Last modified: 23 Jan 2026
<div style="background-color: rgba(0, 178, 169, 0.3); padding: 5px; border-radius: 5px;"><strong>A minority of LPS have provided information about their participants' gender</strong></div>  

## Introduction  
Only five of the LPS contributing to UK LLC have included information about their participants’ self-defined gender. UK LLC has harmonised the gender data provided by LPS and made it available to researchers as part of the UK LLC managed demographic dataset. This can be requested as part of a project application or amendment. 

Because of the slightly different gender categories used by each LPS, UK LLC has harmonised data about gender in two ways. Firstly, retaining all the detail provided by each LPS and, secondly, summarising gender information into its simplest form (Table 1). Information on gender is provided for each LPS at the most detailed level available.

**Table 1: harmonised categories of gender**
| More detailed | Less detailed |
|---|---|
| Male | Male |
| Female | Female |
| Non-binary | Other |
| Prefer to self-define | Other |  

<br>  

>This [**spreadsheet**](../../../../images/lps_gender_v1.xltm) shows the gender categories used by each LPS and how these have been harmonised by UK LLC.

N.B. The wording of the sex & gender questions used by **EXCEED**, and deposited in the TRE, imply that EXCEED asks about gender rather than sex. UK LLC has harmonised these variables at face value, though researchers are encouraged to make their own decisions about how to interpret the variables.