Detransition is the cessation or reversal of a transgender identification or of gender transition, temporarily or permanently, through social, legal, and/or medical means.
[5][not in body] Some organizations with ties to conversion therapy have used detransition narratives to push transphobic rhetoric and legislation.
Detransition is the process of halting or reversing social, medical, or legal aspects of a gender transition, partially or completely.
[14] Retransition is sometimes used as a synonym for detransition but more commonly refers to restarting or resuming a stopped or reversed gender transition.
[16] The term has become associated with movements that aim to restrict the access of transgender people to transition-related healthcare by over-emphasizing the risk of regret and detransition.
It found the studies used heterogenous methodologies and definitions of the term, with small time frames, low participation, and lack of consideration for patient-level data and confounding factors.
The review noted that the "current literature shows that the decision to detransition appears to be rare" and stated that estimates of those who detransition due to a change in identity are likely overinflated due to conflation between a change in identity and other reasons for discontinuation reported such as "financial barriers, side effects, poor compliance, social issues or goals of treatment met".
External factors include financial or legal issues, social and familial stigma and discrimination, difficulty accessing medical treatment, or cultural and ideological pressures.
[14][18] Some people detransition on a temporary basis, in order to accomplish a particular aim, such as having biologically related children, or until barriers to transition have been resolved or removed.
States have also sought to ban such care for those under 26, restrict access for all ages, or limit public and private insurance coverage of it.
[26] In May 2024, leaked documents from the NHS suggested said that transgender youth who received gender-affirming care from unregulated or overseas advisors could be forced to choose between medical detransition or being subject to safeguarding referrals and investigations.
Knight wrote in a suicide note that her parents had hired an American private intelligence firm and a Saudi lawyer to relocate and forcibly socially and medically detransition her.
After becoming dependent on the lawyer for food and shelter and fearing he would report her to U.S. immigration authorities, Knight wrote that she returned to her parents in Saudi Arabia.
[45] On the left, some radical feminists see detransitioners' experiences as further proof of patriarchal enforcement of gender roles and medicalized erasure of gays and lesbians.
[46][48] In 2017, the Mazzoni Center's Philadelphia Trans Health Conference, which is an annual meeting of transgender people, advocates, and healthcare providers, canceled two panel discussions on detransition and alternate methods of working with gender dysphoria.
In the 1970s, Exodus International platformed Perry Desmond, an "ex-transsexual" who evangelized throughout the US and supported Anita Bryant's Save Our Children campaign.
[48] Schevers noted that during the Bell v Tavistock ruling, her lawyer had connections to the right-wing and anti-LGBT-rights organization the Alliance Defending Freedom, which she described as pushing most of the anti-trans bills in the United States.