Detransitioners Speak

In recent months, we are hearing more and more stories of detransitioners who are renouncing and speaking out about their prior self-identification of being transgender. Research in the journal, Archives of Sexual Behavior, reports on interviews with seventy-eight individuals from the United States, ages eighteen to thirty-three who had stopped identifying as transgender at least six months prior to the interview. Their average age for first identifying as transgender was seventeen point one years of age, and they had done so for an average of five point four years before detransitioning. Eighty three percent had taken steps to transition socially, and sixty-eight percent had taken at least one medical step. Most reported that they had embraced the ideology because of prior mental health issues and trauma. They report better psychological health since detransitioning. These stories are becoming more widespread, and we shouldn’t be surprised.