This page contains studies along with stories, articles, videos and blogs by people who transitioned and later detransitioned, or are in the process of detransitioning. The stories are varied; some from men, some from women, some who experience regret, some who don’t. We include the testimonies of people of all walks of life and at any age. They are the part of the story which is hidden and denied by transgender activists and support groups and they all deserve to be heard.
Book
Detrans: When transition is not the solution by Dr Az Hakeem.
“There’s a commonly held assumption that some people are ‘trans’ and ‘born into the wrong body. Most healthcare interventions will ‘affirm’ the person’s preferred gender and help them to transition often in a physically irreversible way.
But what if someone who makes a gender transition later changes their mind? What if they regret making irreversible physical changes to their body? What then?
This book is about the detransitioners and the desisters for whom gender transition was not the hoped for solution.”
Detransition Studies
Exploring the Psychological Mechanisms of Gender Transition and Detransition (June 2026)
Stephen B Levine
“Five overlapping retrospective pathways to transition emerged: (1) Neurocognitive conditions; (2) Prior sexual abuse and dissociation; (3) Social contagion and digital amplification; (4) Ego-dystonic sexuality; and (5) Fear of emerging sexuality and extreme sexual stereotyping. The new identity was frequently accompanied by initial validation euphoria and maintained by sunk-cost psychology. Upon detransitioning, despite navigating complex post-transition medical sequelae and grief, some participants reported profound relief. Within this cohort, transition appeared to be at least partially an attempt to decrease preexisting psychosocial distress.”
Sociodemographic and Mental Health Characteristics of Adults with Different Gender Trajectories (June 2026)
Pablo Exposito-Campos et al
“Detransitioning participants started medically transitioning at a younger age compared to TGD participants. In addition, the number of participants who discontinued GAHT and reported side or unwanted effects related to GATH was significantly higher in the detransition group, whereas the number of participants with interest in further interventions was significantly higher in the TGD group. There were no statistically significant differences in any of the other variables, suggesting an overall absence of disparities in life experiences and mental health between the two groups.”
Differences in Personality and Psychopathological Symptoms among Adults with Distinct Gender Trajectories (2025)
Pablo Exposito-Campos et al
“Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people show different trajectories after gender transition. While some continue to transition, others detransition (DT), that is, stop or reverse the process. Both populations experience poor mental health, but no study has compared whether they have different psychological profiles and needs.”
“TGD participants had elevated scores on borderline features and mania, whereas DT participants had elevated scores on anxiety-related disorders. The TGD group showed significantly higher scores on antisocial features, alcohol problems, and dominance, and significantly higher rates of self-harm; the DT group had significantly higher scores on phobias and significantly higher rates of social detachment. Both groups exhibited elevated scores on suicidal ideation, stress, and nonsupport.”
Gender Dysphoria and Detransitioning in Adults: An Analysis of Nine Patients from a Gender Identity Clinic from Finland (2025)
Kaisa Kettula et al
“The mean regret time (i.e., time from the first diagnosis of F64.0 to the beginning of the new evaluation period) was seven years. The detransitioners had a high number of psychiatric diagnoses. Childhood trauma, sexual abuse or rape, eating disorder symptoms, borderline personality, and psychotic symptoms were common among detransitioners.
Retrospectively, the patients reported that the need for transitioning in the first place was not the transgender identity or gender dysphoria, but reasons related to the maturation process and unresolved psychological stressors. An assessment made by the psychologist at the GIC revealed childhood trauma and severe challenges in parenting and attachment.”
Narratives of Adults Registered Female at Birth Who Started a MedicalTransition and Later Detransitioned
Jane Lomax and Catherine Butler (2025)
“Four narrative themes were developed to capture how they made sense of their detransition: (1) the limits of medical transition, (2) the longer-term health implications, (3) the social limits of transition, and (4) detransition as an ongoing process. Participants discussed a range of emotional, practical, and other support needs, largely unmet by healthcare or other services. These findings highlight the importance of ensuring that people have realistic expectations of transition as part of a holistic assessment process. Long-term health outcome research is also needed, addressing the impact of testosterone on female anatomy and health specifically. Further clinical implications with those considering transition or detransition are discussed.”
A typology of pathways to detransition: Considerations for care practice with transgender and gender diverse people who stop or reverse their gender transition (2025)
MacKinnon, Kinnon R et al
“The present study found that identity shifts are often bound up with detransition, even when motivated by external factors such as lack of support or health concerns with gender-affirming medical interventions. This study suggests there may be various gender detransition subtypes requiring further research and care provider attention. Practice guidelines to better inform care providers who work with detransitioning/retransitioning people are needed.”
Prevalence of detransition in persons seeking gender affirming hormonal treatments: a systematic review (2024)
Eva Feigerlova
“The unique features of this analysis are its restrictive inclusion criteria compared with those of previous reviews,
such as a strict definition of detransition and a focus on empirical studies only. However, most of the studies were retrospective and unblinded, and most were not sufficiently powered to detect detransition rates.”
“Taken together, the results of the present analysis show that detransition in persons undergoing gender-affirming treatment has
been insufficiently investigated, highlighting the need for long-term follow-up studies.”
Exploring the gender care experiences and perspectives of individuals who discontinued their transition or detransitioned in Canada (2023)
Kinnon R MacKinnon et al
“To access medical/surgical interventions, most participants were assessed via the gender-affirming care model pathway and also engaged in talk therapy with a mental healthcare provider such as a psychologist or psychiatrist. Some participants experienced their care as lacking the opportunity to clarify their individual treatment needs prior to undergoing medical/surgical transition. Decisional regret emerged as a theme alongside dissatisfaction with providers’ “informed consent” procedures, such that participants felt they would have benefitted from a more robust discussion of risks/benefits of interventions prior to treatment decision-making. Overall, participants recommended an individualized approach to care that is inclusive of mental healthcare supports.”
A nuanced look into youth journeys of gender transition and detransition (2023)
Annie Pullen et al
“This article presents the perspectives of youths who have detransitioned or discontinued a transition regarding their experiences and feelings on their journey from transition to detransition.”
Transition Regret and Detransition: Meanings and Uncertainties (2023)
Sarah C. J. Jorgensen
“In this essay, I discuss emerging clinical and research issues related to transition regret and detransition with the aim of arming clinicians with the latest information so they can support patients navigating the challenges of regret and detransition.”
Breastfeeding grief after chest masculinisation mastectomy and detransition: A case report with lessons about unanticipated harm (2023)
Karleen D. Gribble, Susan Bewley, Hannah G. Dahlen
“To the best of our knowledge, this report presents the first published case of a woman who had chest masculinisation surgery to affirm a gender identity as a trans man, but who later detransitioned, became pregnant and grieved her inability to breastfeed.”
Continuation of Gender-affirming Hormones Among Transgender Adolescents and Adults (2022)
Christina M Roberts et al
“Our results suggest that >70% of TGD individuals who start gender-affirming hormones will continue use beyond 4 years, with higher continuation rates in transfeminine individuals. Patients who start hormones, with their parents’ assistance, before age 18 years have higher continuation rates than adults.”
Care of Transgender Patients: A General Practice Quality Improvement Approach (2022)
Isabel Boyd, Thomas Hackett, Susan Bewley
“Given the findings of long waits, high rates of medical complexity, and some undesired treatment outcomes (including a fifth of patients stopping hormones of whom more than half cited regret or detransition experiences), this small but population-based quality improvement approach should be replicated and expanded upon at scale.”
“Thus, the detransition rate found in this population is novel and questions may be raised about the phenomenon of overdiagnosis, overtreatment, or iatrogenic harm as found in other medical fields.”
Individuals Treated for Gender Dysphoria with Medical and/or Surgical Transition Who Subsequently Detransitioned: A Survey of 100 Detransitioners (2021)
Lisa Littman
“Some were harmed by transition and detransitioned because they concluded that their gender dysphoria was caused by trauma, a mental health condition, internalized homophobia, or misogyny—conditions that are not likely to be resolved with transition.These findings highlight the complexity of gender dysphoria and suggest that, in some cases, failure to explore co-morbidities and the context in which the gender dysphoria emerged can lead to misdiagnosis, missed diagnoses, and inappropriate gender transition.”
Detransition-Related Needs and Support: A Cross-Sectional Online Survey (2021)
Elie Vandenbussche
“The results showed important psychological needs in relation to gender dysphoria, comorbid conditions, feelings of regret and internalized homophobic and sexist prejudices. It was also found that many detransitioners need medical support notably in relation to stopping/changing hormone therapy, surgery/treatment complications and reversal interventions. Additionally, the results indicated the need for hearing about other detransitioners’ experiences and meeting each other.”
Read the full study results here
Access to care and frequency of detransition among a cohort discharged by a UK national adult gender identity clinic: retrospective case-note review (2021)
R. Hall, L. Mitchell, J. Sachdeva
“Service users may have unmet needs. Neurodevelopmental disorders or ACEs suggest complexity requiring consideration during the assessment process. Managing mental ill health and substance misuse during treatment needs optimising. Detransitioning might be more frequent than previously reported.”
A Typology of Gender Detransition and Its Implications for Healthcare Providers (2021)
Pablo Exposito-Campos
“When facing a person who decides to detransition, clinicians must always adopt a non-judgmental, compassionate stance. Detransitioning can be as difficult as transitioning due to societal lack of understanding, social isolation, fear, shame, trauma, and the paucity of answers and resources for those who take that path. Even when the person has only undergone a social transition, going back to living according to one’s birth sex can be troublesome”
Letter to the Editor: Regret after Gender-affirmation Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Prevalence (2021)
Pablo Exposito-Campos, Roberto D’Angelo
Debate: The pressing need for research and services for gender desisters/detransitioners (2020)
Catherine Butler, Anna Hutchinson
“Research with populations who desist and detransition is in its infancy, and little is known about how best to work with this growing population. While there is increasing recognition of the need for support for those who require it, there are still no clear guidelines on how to do this work. We are at an important juncture where our evidence base is based on previous cohorts that may not be applicable to the current population of desisters and detransitioners; it is prudent to consider their needs alongside those who go on to identify as trans for life.”
Debate: Reality check – Detransitioner’s testimonies require us to rethink gender dysphoria (2020)
Kirsty Entwistle
“Anecdotal reports by detransitioners suggest greater openness to psychological formulation based interventions to make sense of the factors that prompted and maintained their GD that may have been more challenging prior to detransition. These include external factors such as ‘bingeing’ on videos by transgender YouTubers; misinformation on GD and medical transition; being bullied and being socially isolated.”
Female Detransition and Reidentification: Survey Results and Interpretation (2016)
Crashchaoscats
“This survey was created for anyone female/AFAB who formerly self-described as transgender. This includes women who transitioned, whether socially and/or medically, and subsequently detransitioned, as well as individuals who still identify as nonbinary or genderfluid, but have desisted from medical or social transition.”
Writings and Articles
Michael Kerr: I’m a walking example of what’s wrong about trans ideology
The New York Times: As Kids, They Thought They Were Trans. They No Longer Do
Sallie Baxendale: Doctors have failed detransitioners
PITT: Detransitioner Viewpoint: On my Relationship with my Parents
PITT: Learning from the Detransitioners
New York Post: Why Detransitioned Teens Regret Changing Genders
TullipR: The Gender Dysphoria Trap
Corinna Cohn: What I wish I’d known when I was 19 and had sex reassignment surgery
Sinead Watson: The detransitioners: “The problems I thought I’d solved were all still there”
Allie: I was allowed to transition at 18 without question – but I regretted it
Grace Lidinsky-Smith: There’s No Standard for Care When it Comes to Trans Medicine
TullipR: Lost Boys – Speaking up for Detrans Males
J D Robertson: Detrans Youth Stories they Didn’t Want You to Hear, in 60 Minutes, or Less
Detrans Voices: Detrans Story: Laura
Hormone Hangover: Top Surgery Regret
Keira Bell: ‘I couldn’t sit by while so many others made the same mistake’
Keira Bell: NHS gender clinic ‘should have challenged me more’ over transition
Sinead Watson: Transition and detransition: a conversation between sisters
Laura Dodsworth: The Detransitioners
Charlie Evans: A Journey from Trans* to T*RF
Thomasin Pick: Living in trans bubble increased my social anxiety
Aleksa Lundberg: “I am a gay feminine man with a female body”
Carey Callahan: The Game Plan for When Transition Hasn’t Worked Out
Thomasin Pick: One Year Out – My Story
Nicole Jones: Overcoming Gender Dysphoria
Exit Sign: Out of Place and Time
Lisa Marchiano: The ranks of detransitioners are growing. We need to understand why
Helen Joyce: Speaking up for female eunuchs
BBC News: Bath Spa University ‘blocks transgender research’
Websites, Blogs and Support Groups
Post trans – a collection of detransition stories of female detransitioners and desisters
Support Post Trans on Patreon here
The Detransition Advocacy Network
GCCAN – Gender Care Consumer Advocacy Network
Broadcasts, Podcasts and Videos
Gender: A Wider Lens Podcast: Ritchie’s Detransition: The Myth of Adult Invulnerability
The Critic Magazine: The Detransitioners – interview with James Caspian and Laura Dodsworth
Jordan Peterson: Detransition: The Wounds That Won’t Heal; Chloe Cole
Venus Rising with TullipR: What the Gender Industry won’t Tell You
Post Trans Booklet
Detrans Stories – Benjamin Boyce
Genspect Detrans Awareness Day Webinar
Sinead Watson: Ramblings of a Detransitioned Woman
BBC: NHS gender clinic ‘should have challenged me more’ over transition – interview with Keira Bell
Sky News: Transgender Ruling: Clinic Defends Transgender Treatment – interview with Keira Bell
BBC Newsnight: Detransitioning – Reversing a Gender Transition
The Detransitioners – She2He2She and He2She2He
BBC World Service radio broadcasts available here
Detransition: The Elephant in the Room
The Trans Train: Swedish Documentary
The Trans Train (2)
The Trans Train (3) Link here
Transgender Regret: Dutch documentary, with subtitles by PeachYogurt
On Transition, Activism and Therapy, with Carey Callahan
60 Minutes Australia: Who am I?
Sky News: ‘Hundreds’ of young trans people seeking help to return to original sex
Charlie Evans: Sky News interview
Elle Palmer
If you’re a girl who hated puberty this is for you
Why I transitioned and detransitioned
Blaire White
Interview with Elle Palmer
Chiara interviewed by Benjamin Boyce
GNC Centric
Social Media: from Transitioning with Queer Cult Twitter to Detransition with Gender Critical Tumblr
Tavistock: Former Clinicians Call it Conversion Therapy – My Response
Coercion and Abuse in the Gender ID Community: Interview with Benjamin Boyce
Martin Rei
My Detransition: How it Happened
Voices
This Soft Space
“But a wave of voices is rising, and helping tremendously.” A documentation of videos and writing by the young women whose words are amongst the most powerful on the subject of transition and the journey back to womanhood: Maria Catt, Kat, Max, and the blogs CrashChaosCats and GuideOnRagingStars.
Detransition – An FtM Journeys Home – In Her Own Words
“I’m 30 years of age. I don’t blame anyone else for my idiocy. I just wish I would have learned to love myself before completely turning my life upside down with all of this.”
Advice for Parents of Teen Girls and Girl-Children Who Think They’re Trans
“In closing, this trend is going to have a devastating impact on today’s youth about 10 years down the road. These things are not very well studied, and we are/were their guinea pigs. Be a role model, be a mentor, but most of all, don’t be afraid to be a parent. Don’t allow yourself to be bullied into this. This is your child’s health that is being played with, and your child’s health is not a game – it is life or death.”
Maria Catt: The Adult Baby Story
“A lot of my anger at the people who were cheerleaders for my transition is their enthusiasm for all these limits I was placing on my life- the black hole of time and money and energy transitioning is- revealed that they didn’t think I had much value. They didn’t say anything like, “What you could do with that time and money and energy if you directed it towards a goal beyond changing your body is so profound that this pursuit seems like a massive waste of what you are capable of.”
Third Way Trans
“I then worked through a lot of trauma in therapy and discovered that I could be comfortable with presenting male after all, and that it was good to let go of the need of be seen as female. Much to my surprise it was possible to become okay with being seen as male, because it does not limit me from being who I am. I wish I could have saved myself all of this trouble and worked through these issues psychologically and I am concerned that the psychological community does not present this possibility.”
CRASHCHAOSCATS
“I’m always going to wonder what might have been. What would my body be like now if I’d never done t? I devalued my own body, I became dissatisfied with it, I convinced myself that it wasn’t enough, didn’t speak clearly enough about what I was”
This Soft Space
“Took me until I was 30 to realize I was a lesbian. Took me another 8 years and a trip through postmodern gender/queer theory, including a time identifying as transgender, to finally make peace with my body, my sex, and my orientation – not to mention my place in the world.”
Guide On Raging Stars
“The memories keep coming. Remembering who I was before I was a “boy” and then a “man”. Things I felt I couldn’t think about before because it would remind me that I was born female. In trying to solve my identity problems I think now that I only compounded them, became a man with no past. So much of my childhood makes no sense without the context of girlhood, so those memories were forgotten–not blocked out, just ignored. It’s no wonder that I’ve felt so lost and unlike myself for so long.”
Hot Flanks: No Trick, No Secret
“I latched onto the idea that I had never been able to connect with my peers or make friends because I couldn’t relate to other people as a woman, because I was a man! There were answers to what I was dealing with and with Modern Medical Technology could correct this very simple birth-defect that I had recently diagnosed myself with. My discomfort with my body would be eased and the world would suddenly know how to relate to me!”
The Re-Transing Of Male Miriam
“Feminine = female, because the alternative of being a man who displays femininity as a man is too horrible to contemplate. Like the friend who told me that going into the men’s restroom would be demeaning to me. I can already see from reactions of my customers that I’m more socially acceptable as a man who’s tryin reel hard to be a women rather than as some weirdo dude with a feminine self-expression.”
Sex Change Regret
A website for people who regret gender reassignment surgery
Blood and Visions: Reconciling With Being Female
Booklet available from Autotomous Womyn’s Press
Redress Alert
http://redressalert.tumblr.com/
Sex Change Info
“Regarding the outcome of reassignment surgery Dr. Charles Ihlenfeld said, “80% should not do it” and for the remaining 20%, he says it will not be a lifelong solution but rather a temporary “reprieve.” In other words, do not expect long term success.”
4thWaveNow: In Praise of Gatekeepers: An Interview With A Former Teen Client Of Transactive Gender Centre
“I think the idea of someone being able to get transitional surgery underage is concerning—in the state of Oregon, you can’t get a tattoo underage even with parental consent, but you can be permanently sterilized at 15 without any parental input. This is built off the law that minors 15 and older can consent to their own medical and dental diagnosis and treatment, up to and including surgery, but it seems to me that these kinds of surgeries are things that can wait until someone is at least 18.”
Sex Change Surgery: What Bruce Jenner, Diane Sawyer and You Should Know
Walt Heyer, the Witherspoon Istitute Public Discourse
“It is intellectually dishonest to ignore the facts that surgery never has been a medically necessary procedure for treating gender dysphoria and that taking cross-gender hormones can be harmful.”
Mistaken Identity
David Batty, the Guardian
“It’s taken eight years finally to get to grips with myself and the reality of my situation. I know I will never be anything other than a transsexual. As long as I live, I will never be a real woman – no matter how well I pass. Unless you really come to terms with this, the transsexual lifestyle can be unbearably hard. If we throw away our support by burying ourselves in ‘normal society’, it can also become unbearably lonely. So my message is, proceed with caution.”
Transgender Regret is Real Even if the Media Tell You Otherwise
Walt Heyer, the Federalist
“The media cover-up of regret and suicides isn’t a new phenomenon; it was in play 36 years ago. In 1979 Dr. Charles Ihlenfeld, who worked alongside the famous Dr. Harry Benjamin for six years administering hormone therapy to some 500 transgenders, spoke to an audience in New York about his experience: “There is too much unhappiness among people who have had the surgery. Too many of them end as suicides.”