The ‘Detrans’ Phenomenon

On the 12th of March, it was #DetransAwarenessDay. Normally these seemingly astroturfed ‘awareness days’ appear as opportunities for guilt-free mass virtue signalling. However, for once it seems to have drawn attention to an often under emphasised social phenomenon; priorly transgender persons “detransitioning and/or desisting from transgender self-identification.” 

A UK based study published last year examined the case notes of a British gender identity clinic between September 2017 and August 2018. Of the 175 adults discharged from the facility, 12 (6.9 per cent) had met the criteria for detransitioning, meaning that they had returned to identifying as their biological sex. As this study only examined 11 months, the true figure will likely be higher. 

Beneath, I will showcase some of the first-hand accounts of those who have gone through the detransitioning process and shared their stories via the hashtag ‘#DetransAwarenessDay’.

Websites such as DetransVoices.org were promoting the Twitter trend.

The fact that she went through with transitioning simply to fit in with her friends is certainly worthy of note here.

It is interesting that she attributes transitioning to being lonely and hating her body and notes the influence of the internet. 

Here she attributed the internet, supporting the testimony of the previous person. It is also noteworthy that she attributes failing to meet social norms and what appears to be self-hatred as a result.

Another seemingly common trend is lesbian women transitioning because they do not conform to convention norms on gender.

It appears, at least to me, that vulnerable or confused people have been swept up by a social trend that they did not completely understand prior to participating in it. Hopefully, through this discussion of the stories of the detransitioned, people can learn from the mistakes of others and avoid following in their footsteps. With greater awareness of the phenomenon of detransitioning and the difficulties associated with changing gender and/or sex, people can prevent actions leading to irreparable harm upon themselves that they may come to regret later.