Detransition statistics
How many people detransition after a gender transition? The low figure of around 1 percent that was cited for decades does not stand up to critical scrutiny. Those figures were based on outdated clinical cohorts, short follow-up periods and a narrow definition of regret. More recent research consistently points to considerably higher percentages — and strongly suggests that the true scale is still being underestimated.
Subtopics are covered in International detransition statistics.
Why the old figures (~1%) are inaccurate
The familiar figure of around 1 percent comes from older clinical follow-up studies, mainly from the Netherlands and Sweden, based on cohorts from the 1980s and 1990s. Those studies had structural limitations:
- They counted only people who formally returned to the treating clinic with a statement of regret — a high threshold that most detransitioners do not meet.
- Follow-up was often short (a few years), while detransition generally occurs only 4 to 8 years after transition.
- Loss to follow-up was high. Those who left were counted as 'satisfied' or excluded from consideration.
- The treatment population at the time — predominantly adult men with early-onset, persistent dysphoria — differs fundamentally from today's population, in which adolescent girls and young women without childhood dysphoria predominate.
In other words: the old figures are not simply 'cautious estimates' — they measure something different from what we understand as detransition today.
What more recent research shows
Littman (2021) surveyed 100 detransitioners in a targeted study. Many respondents never returned to their original doctor: they stopped taking hormones on their own, sought help elsewhere or withdrew from healthcare. This explains why clinical records systematically produce figures that are too low.
Vandenbussche (2021) reported similar findings in a study of 237 detransitioners: a majority felt inadequately supported and indicated that underlying issues (trauma, autism, internalized misogyny, homophobia) had not been recognized.
British data from the years surrounding the Cass Review point to a discontinuation rate among young people far above the old 1%. An American study using military insurance data (Roberts et al., 2022) found that approximately 30% of young people discontinued treatment within four years of starting hormone therapy — not all of them detransitioners in the strict sense, but still a much stronger signal than the mainstream narrative acknowledges.
The largest survey to date, the 2026 DARE study of 957 people in the United States and Canada, shows that stopping rarely has a single cause. And in an overview of the Nordic countries, the authors themselves cite a Swedish study in which 2.2 percent submitted a legal application to reverse their transition. A column on genderplek.nl discusses a Finnish registry study in which 7.9 percent stopped hormone treatment.
Why the true figures are probably higher
Three systematic effects lead to underestimation:
- Late detransition. It takes years on average for someone to acknowledge regret and take steps back. Short follow-up misses this group entirely.
- Shame and isolation. Detransitioners almost unanimously describe how difficult it is to speak out — both within the trans community, which often feels rejected by their story, and to their original healthcare providers.
- Disappearing from clinical care. Many detransitioners sever contact with the treating clinic. They do not appear in clinical figures, at most in self-reported surveys or online communities.
The current patient population — predominantly adolescent girls and young women with comorbid mental health problems, often without childhood dysphoria — differs fundamentally from the cohorts on which the reassuring old figures were based. It is not scientifically defensible to project the 1% figures from that time onto today's population.
The Dutch context
Large, representative detransition studies are lacking in the Netherlands. Amsterdam UMC (formerly VUmc) operated for decades as virtually the only specialized clinic, but did not publish complete long-term follow-up of all patients treated. The figures that are cited — low and reassuring — come from the same clinic that provided the treatments. Independent verification is lacking. The Cass Review explicitly criticized the recurrence of the same methodological weaknesses in gender care across many Western countries: short follow-up, high attrition and no control groups.
Interpretation
Whether the true detransition rate is 5%, 10% or 30% depends on the population, definition and duration of follow-up. What is clear is that the old reassurance of "less than 1 percent regret" is not sustainable in the current healthcare climate. Even under cautious assumptions, this means that thousands of people in the Netherlands experience lasting physical consequences from a treatment they later regret. This is not a marginal phenomenon.