Detransition Numbers

How many people detransition?

Why don't we know?

How many detransitioners are there? What percentage of people who go on puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, or surgery, go on to regret these procedures and make an attempt to restore their original sex?

The truth is, we don't know the answer to these questions, but I can at least explain why.

We don't have the numbers and don't have the data because it's not being well studied. It is brand new medicine, and there has not been enough time to see it's effects, especially in young people. People call gender affirming care “experimental,” but I would say that even that wording is too generous: at least during experiments, thorough studies are conducted. This is not the case with this branch of medicine, however. The treatments are extremely new and the science is abysmal. There is little peer reviewed research, and money is too caught up in this being a cure. Not to mention that studying the long term effects of puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, and surgery when done young means conducting human experimentation upon children.

On top of this, there are no medical codes for detransitioners. This means that there is no way to track them. I am a 25 year old female detransitioner, and my paperwork says “transgender” and “acute post menopausal vaginal atrophy.” Of course, no one will tell you why I am 25 and in menopause, but I know.

So, we have a trifecta of greed, newness, and lack of information. It is good for a doctor's wallet if detransitioners don't exist, people are being transitioned at a rate faster and makes frequently than ever before, and there is no way to track those who detransition without medical codes.

Detransition vs Desistance

There is also the issue of detransition vs desistance. Detransition, as mentioned above, is when a person regrets medical procedures which they have undergone in the name of gender affirming care. Desistance is when someone has a trans identity which they lose and move on from before they are medicalized. There are also those who continue to identify as trans, but stop the medicalization of their bodies due to health or other reasons. What do we call them?

On the topic of dessisting, and of studies, there is confusing information about how many trans identifying people will go on to medically change themselves in the first place. Some studies say that up to 85% of those with trans identities will desist if not “affirmed,” while others say that once the identity begins, the majority will remain trans-identifying and go on to puberty blockers, hormones, and or surgery.

The difference is whether or not the person or child is “affirmed” and goes through a social transition. Social transition is a pathway to medical transition. The love bombing that people will receive when they socially transition will encourage them to continue down the conveyer belt to medicalization. However, if the person is not affirmed and boundaries are in place, many studies and personal testimonies from parents say that the child or person will desist and not move to medical transition.

What does this mean for the numbers, though? It once again means that we don't really know.

Some of the Studies

What are the issues with the studies?

Most of the studies we come across are biased, have no peer reviews, and has low standards. I have never seen a double blind study on this topic. Another common theme in these studies is incredibly quick follow up time.

For example, one study about satisfaction rates after top surgery only visited the patients 3 months after their radical double mastectomy. Participants weren't even healed or recovered from surgery.

One frequently sited organization is the American Association of Pediatrics. This medical association is often quoted in their studies when I am testifying on bills against gender affirming care. As other countries roll back their previous relationships with hormones are surgery, the AAP isn't backing down. Instead, they won't allow for any argument at all, saying that anything other than they they say is hateful and puts children at risk of suicide, a common transition myth.

The AAP commonly refuses to do peer reviews for their studies. They are creating studies in direct opposition to the recent bills going around the States which would ban gender affirming care for minors. These bills would negatively affect their doctors by taking away their ability to make money in the multi-billion dollar gender industry by being unable to prescribe puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, or surgery.

Another issues with studies about detransition, is that they often leave detransitioners out. Surveys are sent out that only fit a certain narrative and procure specific answers from only certain demographics. I have tried to participate in some myself, and found that the only reasons I was able to give for my detransition were things like “Affordability,” “Discrimination,” and “Hate.” None of these reasons account for people who realized that they were not born in the wrong body. People who detransition often realize that they have been sold a false cure and go on to detransition after working out underlying mental health conditions or trauma.

Detransition and Doctors

In my experience, and that of other detransitioners with whom I am friends, doctors won't help you if you detransition. As aforementioned, there are no medical codes for people who detransition, but it goes further than that.

Before we can answer questions like why people detransition, we first have to ask, why don't they? Doctors are a large part of the reason for this. They won't help you.

For a doctor to help you detransition, they first have to admit, to themselves and to you, that they or a colleague messed up. This opens the doors for malpractice lawsuits, misdiagnosis lawsuits, and more. Also, admitting that something went wrong is hard, especially when transition is being touted as the cure for everything.

This leads people not to or to be unable to detransitioners, setting the numbers even higher than what we predicted. How can someone detransition without a doctor's help? Of course, you can do what I did and quit the hormones cold turkey with no medical supervision, but it is dangerous and miserable. Past that point, doctors are hesitant to prescribe correct sex hormones to detransitioners, even when their blood work reflects that they need it. This is happening to me.

“I don't want to treat you like a guinea pig,” My primary physician said, refusing to prescribe me hormones. “I don't know what they'll do to you or what is going to happen.”

Doctors won't admit when people detransition. They won't treat detransitioners. This is horrific.

The Dangers of Detransition

Detransitioning is dangerous to do in our current political climate. Not only is there health related danger as it is hard to get medical assistance, but there are social dangers as well.

Usually, the best and easiest form of hate a detransitioner gets is being told that they don't exist. Numbers are all around from the above debunked studies I mentioned, stating that the numbers of detransitioners are low and that they don't exist. People lie about the reasons for detransition, and even say that some people who do so still identify as trans even when they do not. (Transgenderism and gender non-conformity are two different things.)

For some reason, people seem to think that you hate trans people if you detransition. This is not the case for myself or any detrans person I have ever met. Yes, we have realized that we were sold snake oil and have serious regrets, but the anger is directed at the doctors, and not others who think that medicalizing themselves will save them. However, detransitioners are often met with backlash and hate and are called “terfs” and “transphobic.” I personally get death threats.

Because of the way politics are today, many people are not public with their detransition, and do so in secret. I quit testosterone in secret and didn't tell anyone for years. I continued to live socially as the opposite sex until my trauma was addressed and I felt well and stable enough to face the hate.

Unable to Detransition

Finally, there are those who have gone too far to go back. Detransition is not a very accurate word for what one is doing when they are trying to restore their original sex. It's impossible to undo irreversible damage. The effects of puberty blockers and hormones are permanent, and can begin within days. Surgery is irreversible as well, and even reconstruction will not restore function or being back what was lost. Not to mention that insurance won't cover anything once you go back.

There is no going back to your original sex. There is no getting back what you have lost. It's gone forever, and there is nothing that can be done….

These people still usually detransition socially, but are unable to fix what has happened, and are not counted in studies.

Conclusion

There is little help for detransitioners, and this can cause people not to come out. Doctors and studies are biased or just lying. There is discrimination against detransitioners, causing them to stay in the shadows. For all of these reasons, we do not have any accurate numbers about how many detransitioners there are. There is no system with which to track them, no way to ensure honesty with so much money in the game, and even saying the truth and going against the narrative is considered hateful.

This means, however, that next time someone gives you a percentage of people who detransition, you can call them out for making it up. No one really knows.

Sources:

Desisting children:

https://www.genderhq.org/trans-children-gender-dysphoria-desistance-gay

Detransitioners affecting Doctors:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0092623X.2020.1869126

The AAP:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-american-academy-of-pediatrics-dubious-transgender-science-jack-turban-research-social-contagion-gender-dysphoria-puberty-blockers-uk-11660732791

https://www.aap.org/en/news-room/news-releases/aap/2021/american-academy-of-pediatrics-speaks-out-against-bills-harming-transgender-youth/