Female
A circle on a genogram is a female family member. Her age is written inside it, and her name and dates beside it.
Easily confused with
- Index personA square or circle with a double outline marks the index person, also called the identified patient: the family member the genogram is drawn around.
- MiscarriageOn a genogram, a miscarriage is a very small circle at the end of a short line down from the parents’ line, in the row of their children.
How to read it
The circle is the female on a genogram, beside the square for a male, in SAMHSA’s family therapy guide, the University of North Dakota’s child welfare guide and the medical pedigree alike. The age goes inside the circle and the name next to it. Two other circles are easy to mistake for a person. A very small circle on a short line in the row of children is a Miscarriage on the Multicultural Family Institute’s sheet, and a circle with a double outline is the index person, the person the genogram is drawn around.
Also searched as: circle genogram, female symbol, genogram female.
This explains what a symbol records on a genogram. Clinicians vary the notation, and a genogram’s own key takes precedence.
Circles in the medical pedigree
In the National Society of Genetic Counselors’ 2022 pedigree standard the shape records gender: a circle is a woman or girl, and a transgender woman is drawn as a circle with AMAB (assigned male at birth) written under it. A circle with no note is a cisgender woman. The society advises against the square inside a circle that the National Comprehensive Cancer Network had recommended for a transgender woman. A nonbinary or gender-diverse person is a diamond. More on the differences between keys is on the Male page.
Read next
- Next in Genogram symbolsDeceasedAn X through a square or circle means the person has died. The age at death is written inside it and the dates above it.
- The same shape in Music symbolsFermataA fermata, an arc over a dot, means hold: the note or rest under it is held longer than its written value, for as long as the performer or conductor chooses. It is also called a pause or hold.
More genogram symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with circles.
Sources
- Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Family Therapy (Treatment Improvement Protocol 39), SAMHSA Publication No. PEP20-02-02-012, updated 2020, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (govinfo.gov), Chapter 4, Counselor Note: Talking to clients about genograms
- QA Case Review: Genogram Resource, ND CFS Quality Assurance, revised November 2022, Children and Family Services Training Center, University of North Dakota, Steps 1 and 5
- Practice resource-focused revision: Standardized pedigree nomenclature update centered on sex and gender inclusivity: A practice resource of the National Society of Genetic Counselors, Robin L. Bennett, Kathryn Steinhaus French, Robert G. Resta and Jehannine Austin, Journal of Genetic Counseling 31 (2022): 1238–1248, National Society of Genetic Counselors (Wiley), Box 1; section 4.1
- Standard Symbols for Genograms, The Multicultural Family Institute (copy on a PBworks course wiki), Pages 1 and 3
- Genograms (Vivienne Kennedy, MAI Review, 2010), Vivienne Kennedy, MAI Review 2010, 3, MAI Review (Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga), Page 5
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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