American English speaker here. At least in the region where I live, "lads" is definitely gendered (plus uncommon and old-fashioned sounding and, applied to adul

American English speaker here. At least in the region where I live, "lads" is definitely gendered (plus uncommon and old-fashioned sounding and, applied to adults, a bit insulting), but "guys" isn't—which leads to friction when we interact with people from areas where, I gather, "guys" remains strongly gendered.