[1] The psychologist John Money oversaw the case and reported the reassignment as successful and as evidence that gender identity is primarily learned.

General practitioner Jean-Marie Huot performed the operation using the unconventional method of electrocauterization,[6][7] but the procedure burned David's penis beyond surgical repair.

[16] At the age of 22 months, David underwent a bilateral orchiectomy, in which his testes were surgically removed and a rudimentary vulva was constructed by genital plastic surgery.

[18] Psychological support for the reassignment and surgery was provided by[19] John Money, who continued to see Reimer annually[20] for consultations and to assess the outcome.

[21] This reassignment was considered an especially important test case[22] of the social learning concept of gender identity for two reasons: first, Reimer's identical twin brother, Brian, made an ideal control because the brothers shared genes, family environments, and the intrauterine environment; second, this was reputed to be the first reassignment and reconstruction performed on a male infant who had no abnormality of prenatal or early postnatal sexual differentiation.

[1] Money reported on Reimer's progress as the "John/Joan case", describing apparently successful female gender development, even after David informed his father at age 14 that he had always felt that he was a boy, bringing the experiment to an end.

[36] His case came to international attention in 1997 when he told his story to Milton Diamond, an academic sexologist who persuaded Reimer to allow him to report the outcome in order to dissuade physicians from treating other infants similarly.

[2] Soon after, Reimer went public with his story and John Colapinto published a widely disseminated and influential account[37] in Rolling Stone magazine in December 1997.

In addition to his difficult lifelong relationship with his parents, Reimer was unemployed and experienced remorse due to the death of his brother Brian from an overdose of antidepressants on 1 July 2002.

[51] Diamond's report and Colapinto's subsequent book about Reimer influenced[clarification needed] several medical practices, reputations, and even current understanding of the biology of gender.

The case accelerated the decline of sex reassignment and surgery for unambiguous XY infants with micropenis, various other rare congenital malformations, or penile loss in infancy.

[49][verification needed] Colapinto's book described unethical and traumatic childhood therapy sessions and implied that Money had ignored or concealed the developing evidence that Reimer's reassignment to female was not going well.

[52][53] A 2001 episode of the PBS documentary series Nova entitled "Sex: Unknown" investigated David's life and the theory behind the decision to raise him as female.

[54][55] An episode of BBC Radio 4 Mind Changers, "Case Study: John/Joan—The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl", discusses the impact on two competing psychological theories of nature vs.

[57] Reimer's story was included in Chapter 11 of American author Sam Kean's 2021 nonfiction book The Icepick Surgeon, which chronicles many instances of scientific and medical malpractice over time.