Detransition Among Young People

Q: How common is detransition among young people?

Systematic figures are lacking. The frequently cited 1% is based on a completely different patient population and is not representative of the current group of teenagers. Recent research suggests percentages many times higher, with a likely large dark figure of young people who do not return to their original clinic.

Q: Which consequences of transition are irreversible?

Mastectomy, altered fertility, permanent voice changes caused by testosterone, permanently altered bone structure, lost sexual function and surgically removed organs cannot be reversed. Hormone therapy has both partly reversible and partly irreversible effects. Social steps such as changing one’s name, clothing and pronouns can be reversed.

Q: Where can detransitioned young people turn?

That is difficult, because specialised services in the Netherlands are minimal. Internationally, detransitioner networks (Post Trans, Detrans Voices, Beyond Trans) share lived experience and refer people to doctors and psychologists who take their problems seriously. A cautious GP is a good starting point.

Q: What can I do as the parent of a child who is considering detransition?

Make it clear that you stand by your child, whatever the outcome. Acknowledge the loss involved — and any lasting physical consequences — without assigning blame. Seek care from professionals who are not part of the transgender political debate. Connecting with other parents can help.

Detransition among young people is no longer a marginal phenomenon. It is a growing, internationally visible reality — and the strongest real-world counterargument to the idea that rapid medical transition for minors is a safe, considered approach. Those who could still call these young people “invisible” until recently can no longer do so today; the group is growing, organising and speaking out.

What is detransition among young people?

Detransition means that someone who has undergone a gender transition returns to their sex assigned at birth — socially, medically or both. Social detransition can involve reversing one’s name, clothing and pronouns. Medical detransition is far more complicated. Hormone therapy has partly irreversible effects (voice, facial hair growth, body composition, fertility and sexual function). Surgical procedures — removed breasts, removed uterus, reconstructed genitals — are never fully reversible; lost tissue is lost.

For young people who transitioned at an early stage through puberty blockers and hormones, the consequences may be lifelong: infertility, lower bone density, permanently reduced sexual function, and a body that has not developed fully as either male or female.

The numbers are rising — and systematic registration is lacking

For a long time, the official message was: “less than 1% of people regret transition.” That figure is derived from outdated studies involving a completely different patient profile (adult biological males who chose surgery after decades of exploration) and is not applicable to the current population — adolescent girls who went from self-diagnosis via TikTok to mastectomy within a few years.

Clinics treating young people often lose contact with patients who come to regret their transition; reporting regret to the organisation that facilitated the transition is impossible for many. In a small British general-practice study (Boyd et al. 2022), one fifth of patients stopped taking hormones; more than half of them cited regret or detransition. That is far above the old 1% claim. A 2024 systematic review of regret after surgery arrived at an average of 1.94 percent, but counted only regret after surgery and not the cessation of hormone treatment. Vandenbussche (2021), based on self-reports from detransitioners, provides insight into their motivations. Vandenbussche (2021) via Taylor & Francis. The support group Cry for Recognition keeps track of the facts about detransition.

Why do young people detransition?

The motivations are revealing and speak for themselves. A Finnish study found a serious psychiatric history in all nine detransitioners studied. Frequently cited reasons, based on self-reports and growing international research, include:

The underlying problem (trauma, autism, depression, an eating disorder, internalised misogyny, lesbian self-rejection) turned out not to be “gender”, but was left untreated in favour of transition.
The expected improvement did not occur; symptoms remained or became worse.
Regret over irreversible interventions — mastectomy, loss of fertility, permanent voice changes.
Recognition that the transition was partly inspired by peer influence and social media, rather than by a deeply rooted need.
Confusion about identity that resolved over time, or with better therapy.

The suffering that goes unspoken

Detransitioned young people are caught between two fires. The trans community often experiences their stories as a threat to its own position and silences them (“you were never really trans”). Social criticism of transition care sometimes uses them in a polemic that the young person themselves never wanted to be part of. The result: shame, isolation and difficulty finding appropriate care. In the Netherlands, specialised services for detransitioners are virtually absent — care for the people harmed by the system has literally not been established. In the United States, Texas’s largest children’s hospital must open a detransition clinic following a settlement.

Voices of detransitioners

Internationally, organisations have emerged — Detrans Voices, Beyond Trans, post-trans networks — where detransitioners share their stories. Stories such as those of Keira Bell, Chloe Cole, Prisha Mosley, Helena Kerschner and countless others are becoming known to an ever-wider audience. Their experience is consistent: they were treated too young, too quickly and with too much affirmation; their underlying problems were missed or ignored; their regret comes later, often with lasting physical harm. In the Netherlands, HP/De Tijd published a landmark interview in which Dutch detransitioners told their stories. HP/De Tijd: “Transition destroyed my life”. What the stories of young adults who return can teach parents is explained on transkind.nl.

What this says about paediatric transition care

Detransition is not negligible “collateral” — it is a direct consequence of a care model that affirms too quickly, diagnoses too little, disregards comorbidity and wrongly uses the threat of suicide as an argument against caution. A growing number of countries have drawn conclusions from this: Cass Review (UK, 2024), SBU (Sweden), COHERE (Finland), and policy revisions in Norway and Denmark. The Netherlands — birthplace of the original Dutch Protocol — is lagging behind in this area.

How common is detransition among young people?

Which consequences of transition are irreversible?

Where can detransitioned young people turn?

What can I do as the parent of a child who is considering detransition?