Research published on 1st December 2023 (almost exactly four years after the first detransitioner conference in Manchester, England) examines the experiences of formerly transgender identifying people who have since desisted or detransitioned. Desistance is the term used to describe those who discard their transgender identity prior to any opposite-sex imitation medication, detransition is used to describe those who have been medicalised.
Littman, L., O’Malley, S., Kerschner, H. et al. Detransition and Desistance Among Previously Trans-Identified Young Adults. Arch Sex Behav (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-023-02716-1
Summary:
- The study recruited 78 US individuals who had previously identified as transgender and had stopped identifying as transgender at least six months prior.
- Most of the participants had taken steps toward social and medical transition, but few of them met the diagnostic criteria for gender dysphoria in childhood.
- More than half of the participants believed that they had experienced rapid-onset gender dysphoria, that involves a sudden or rapid development of gender dysphoria in adolescence or young adulthood.
- The participants reported a high rate of psychiatric diagnoses, many of which preceded their trans-identification.
- Most of the participants were natal females and more likely to be exclusively homosexual than natal males.
- The participants reported that their psychological health had improved dramatically since detransitioning, with decreases in self-harm and gender dysphoria and increases in flourishing.
- The most common reason for trans-identification was confusing mental health issues or reactions to trauma.
- The most common reason for detransition was internal changes in their own thought processes, rather than external pressures from family or society.
