What is detransition? It’s the act of stopping or reversing a gender transition.
Who are Detransitioners? Detransitioners are people who are the fallout from the current push of radical gender ideology and Queer theory in our society. They are the people who bought into the encouragement and lies that they could change their sex through medicalisation and surgery. They are the people trying to cope with society’s failures to protect vulnerable people.
No one knows how many detransitioners there are around the world, because so far, no one has bothered to count them. Gender clinics are not interested in their past patients and don’t bother with follow up, or even with retaining their medical records. How do we know this? Because detransitioners are starting to speak out and talk about their experiences.
Detransitioners around the world are starting to head to social media to try and warn society that the magic wand of gender affirming care, did not in fact fix all their problems. After the initial glow of being love bombed, they’ve found that they’re still lonely, still often isolated, they still have self confidence issues, their trauma is still there, and most importantly, they didn’t change into the opposite sex.
Just have a look on the Reddit Detransitioner board and you will find its numbers has grown in recent years to a staggering almost 45,000 members. Twitter has more detransitioners coming out regularly bravely sharing their stories of how they were sold out by their gender clinics, surgeons, doctors and in some cases, even their parents.
Although there is a void of any solid data to date on detransitioners, there have been attempts to track their numbers. One study was conducted by Lisa Littman, a dedicated researcher who also conducted the study on the Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria phenomenon. Her research showed that 60% of detransitioners chose to detransition because they became more comfortable with their natal sex. 49% expressed that they came to understand that their gender dysphoria was caused by specific issues such as trauma, abuse or mental heath issues. (1)
There is also another study currently underway by a group of concerned people called Detrans Count. Their research is yet to be published, but so far have a greater number of respondents than the previous study. (2)
The Reddit Detransitioner’s board members have also helpfully conducted surveys on their members and have been very helpful in making their data freely available. In this study they found that 86% of people who detransitioned did so because they realised that their gender dysphoria was due to other issues, followed by 70% expressing they were concerned about the health impacts of transitioning. (3)
Although we don’t know the exact number of detransitioners, what we do know is that the numbers are increasing. Their collective voices tell us they’ve been let down, that their former friends in the transgender community have turned their backs on them and they feel abandoned all over again. They discuss the physical pain and the permanent damage they’ve done to their bodies.
Some people simply tell these detransitioners that what they’re experience is a result of their own stupidity but let’s look at the bigger picture.
In Australia we have the affirmation only model of care. What does this mean exactly? To simplify it, it means that from the minute a child declares that they are the opposite sex, then they are. There is no minimum requirement for years, months or even weeks of counselling other than to help them integrate into their new persona in society. There is no investigation into any pre existing mental health conditions, past trauma, or any other co morbidities that could cause a person to become uncomfortable in their own skin. There’s not even any acknowledgement that being a teenager with a changing body is often difficult, despite studies showing that if a child is left to go through puberty without gender affirming care, they usually grow out of their discomfort and no longer feel the need to transition.
Our porn fuelled world is also putting extra pressure on teens to perform a certain way and to make very unrealistic expectations of what people of their sex should behave like to be placed on them.
So, what do detransitioners say about their experiences? One of the main things for those female detransitioners, is the loss of their female voice. One of the first things to change when a female takes synthetic testosterone is their voice and unfortunately, the change is permanent.
Another thing discussed by women is the male pattern baldness that occurs with taking testosterone. Unfortunately, that too seems to be largely permanent, and causes a great deal of distress to this beauty orientate culture.
Facial hair and excess body hair is another common complaint. Although there are treatments for excess hair, it is often expensive and takes time.
More intimate issues also occur like the growth of the clitoris. As it enlarges the hood of the clitoris doesn’t grow, so the bundle of nerves at the top of the clitoris is exposed leaving it very sensitised making sitting, walking and clothes quite uncomfortable.
With the removal of breast tissue, unlike the mastectomies for cancer, the surgeons make the scars as large as possible. Transgender people wear these scars with pride, it highlights the fact that they once had breasts and increases their victim mentality. This scaring causes issues if breast implants are attempted by detransitioners.
Infertility is another huge issue for males and females. Some detransitioners have talked about how they only took cross sex hormones for a relatively short period of time before finding it had made them infertile. Males who take estrogen find they have penile dysfunction and grow breast tissue which needs surgery to remove.
Unfortunately too, once a person has started on cross sex hormones, their bodies stop producing their correct hormone so when they detransition, they need to take the right sex hormones for the rest of their lives.
As the list of complications and issues grows, isn’t it time that we, as a society look at why we are allowing children and youth to transition and make life changing decisions about their bodies before they have a chance to grow and mature?
Sadly too, in states in Australia where there are already conversion therapy laws, detransitioners have an exceedingly difficult time even finding a doctor who will treat them for their basic needs of coming off the cross-sex hormones safely as doctors are frightened of facing deregistration, and criminal charges with lengthy prison sentences and huge financial costs. These states include Victoria, ACT, Queensland, Tasmania and soon Western Australia.
We need to stop allowing radical gender ideology to be taught in schools. We know that children as young as 4 are taught that you can change your sex. Gender is the new cool thing in schools like mods, goths or surfs were in the 80’s. Changing gender is the way to increase popularity amongst their peers. We know some younger children use opposite sex pronouns and names in schools, only to return to their natal sex at home or on weekends. Boy during the day, girl at night and weekends and vis versa.
We need to drop the word gender all together and put sex back into place so we can look at this from a biological, not ideological viewpoint.
We need to stop the affirmation only model of care and to do this we need an urgent Parliamentary inquiry so no more children are harmed by this ideology. The affirmation model of care goes directly against what detransitioners are telling us about their experiences with transitioning. They’re telling us that if they had the proper care and assessment they needed, most would not have transitioned.
We need to listen to the voices of detransitioners and support them as they continue their journeys after they harm they’ve experienced. By Tess, co-founder of Active Watchful Waiting Inc, runs an Australia wide parent support group for ROGD parents. References
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