What is a “detransitioner”?
When I started speaking publicly about four years ago, one of the first things I tried to do was nail down a definition of a “detransitioner.” At one point, I intended to write a blog post about it. I’m kind of glad I never got around to that. My idea of who counts as a “detransitioner” was once very narrow, but the more people I have met, the more that my personal definition has expanded over the years. People don’t want my personal definition, though. They want an objective one. They want the definition that we can put in the dictionary.
I think we can all agree that a “detransitioner” is a person who “detransitions.”
First, then, we should ask: what does it mean to “detransition”?
Dictionary definitions of “detransition”
There are, at last, some online dictionaries that list “detransition” as a word now. I’ll list the definitions for the verb, since that’s the action that a “detransitioner” does.
The Oxford English Dictionary:
intransitive. Of a person who has undergone or is undergoing a gender transition: to halt or reverse the transitioning process.
The Cambridge Dictionary:
[to] stop making changes, which may be social, legal, or medical, that [a person] made to live as a person of a different gender to the one they were said to have at birth
The Collins Dictionary:
to start living your life in your previous gender again after having transitioned to a different gender
I tend to think the Cambridge definition is the most fulsome. Dictionary definitions, though, aren’t meant to capture all of the nuances of a word. Many people would say that it’s impossible “to live as a person of a different gender to the one they were said to have at birth” because you can only ever “live as” the sex that you are. Many people would say that “transitioning” to a “different gender” itself is impossible because you cannot ever change sex.
Of note, some of the “example” sentences given in these dictionaries appear to be ideologically-motivated. The OED actually quotes a post from the r/detrans subreddit, and of all of the posts one can find on r/detrans, the chosen example is “I had a period of doubt where I heavily considered detransitioning but I decided it was not for me.”
How do researchers define “detransition”?
“To date there has been little agreement on a definition of the word ‘detransition,’” Elie Vandenbussche says in her 2021 paper on detransition-related needs and support.1
With that in mind, I may go overboard quoting definitions here, but bear with me. The following are descriptions of “detransition” from researchers with a variety of personal identities and connections to this issue. We are looking for common themes that most people seem to agree upon.
In a 2020 paper, Rowan Hildebrand-Chupp writes that “detransition is, in one sense, a descriptive verb that refers to the act of returning in some way to a pre-transition state [and] can have both medical and social components.” Hildebrand-Chupp’s paper describes “detransition” as having three related concepts: “the act of detransitioning, the ‘detransitioner’ identity, and the negative transition experience.”2
Jack Turban et al. in 2021 describe detransition as “a process through which a person discontinues some or all aspects of gender affirmation.” Gender affirmation is described as “the process of recognizing and supporting a person's gender identity and expression,” “including [in] psychological, social, legal, medical, and surgical domains.”3
Turban and co. interestingly claim that the word “transition”* has “largely fallen out of favour,” and that “the term ‘detransition’ has become less acceptable to [trans and gender diverse] communities, due to its incorrect implication that gender identity is contingent upon gender affirmation processes.” It uses the term “detransition” almost reluctantly, stating that “there is a need for more affirming terminology that has not yet been broadly adopted by [trans and gender diverse] communities or in the literature.”
In a 2021 paper describing a proposed “typology” of gender detransition, Pablo Expósito-Campos defines detransition as “the process of reidentifying with one’s birth sex after having undergone a gender transition.”4
Kinnon MacKinnon et al. offer definitions for several terms related to detransition in their 2023 paper calling for “robust, sensitive research to inform comprehensive gender care services for people who detransition.” The definition of detransition provided is “the process of discontinuing or reversing a gender transition, often in connection with a change in how the individual identifies or conceptualises their sex or gender since initiating transition.” The paper also suggests that “conceptualisations of detransition as always comprising regret, requests to reverse treatments, or treatment non-compliance do not accurately reflect, and may even exclude, the diversity of self-understanding and experiences among people who detransition.”5
Lastly, endocrinologist Michael Irwig writes in a short paper published in 2023 that “detransition refers to the stopping or reversal of transitioning which could be social (gender presentation, pronouns), medical (hormone therapy), surgical, or legal. Although they are sometimes mistakenly viewed as synonymous, detransition and regret are different concepts that may overlap in some people.”6
Elements of a “detransition”
Based on all of the definitions above, I would isolate three elements that generally compose a detransition. (I will discuss nuances a bit later.)
Discontinuation of medical transition
Discontinuation of a “cross-sex” presentation
Cessation of transgender identity and reidentification with their birth sex
No longer identifying as any flavour of “transgender” (including “nonbinary”) is probably the one that would get the most pushback from the general public, but to be frank, I consider it to be the most important element of the three.
Hildebrand-Chupp’s paper offers a hypothetical, which I will paraphrase here for my own purposes: a “trans woman” who has stopped taking hormones may consider himself to “technically” be “a woman who has [medically] detransitioned” but would be unlikely to identify as a “detransitioned woman.” A “detransitioned woman” is a formerly trans-identified female, not a currently trans-identified male who has discontinued hormones.
“Regret” – the fourth element
Several papers make it clear that “regret” and “detransition” are not synonymous. (I agree with this statement.) They likely feel that this is a necessary distinction to make because research has conflated the two in the past.
For example, in a paper titled “Regrets After Sex Reassignment Surgery” published in 1993, Friedemann Pfäfflin writes:7
Regret, in this study, is defined as gender dysphoria in the new gender role and after [sex reassignment surgery] which is expressed in behavior, i.e., attempts at re-reorientation of gender role behavior and/or re-adoption of the former sex/gender-role behavior and/or applications for legal name/gender change and/or attempts to have [sex reassignment surgery] reversed.
In other words, seeking a detransition is essentially the same as “regret.” This does make sense from a research perspective; they were looking at objective actions to indicate regret rather than relying on subjective feelings being expressed to clinicians.
As written in 1998 by A.J. Kuiper and Peggy Cohen-Kettenis:8
[Sex reassignment surgery] regret can be inferred from their overt behavior, such as a second social role reversal, or their statements that they regret the steps they have taken. However, their statements and behavior do not always correspond.
And further:
Because it must be very difficult to acknowledge significant doubts or feelings of regret after having made such an important decision in life, some individuals, for example, will not easily express such feelings, even if their behavior strongly points in that direction.
My own reason for considering “regret” to be inessential to detransition is my desire to respect each person’s right to their own experience. However, I believe that supporters of medical transition are working to separate them in order to downplay the truth: these people never needed medical intervention in the first place, regardless of how they feel about it.
The “spectrum” of detransition
Based on the elements I’ve given above, I will describe a few different experiences that tend to lead people to detransition-focused spaces (e.g., support groups, subreddits, Discord servers, other social media) for various reasons.
Not all of these terms are widely accepted. I’m just coming up with brief descriptions.
“Detransitioner”
discontinued medical transition
discontinued a “cross-sex” presentation
ceased identifying as transgender
“Desister”
never prescribed medical transition interventions
discontinued a “cross-sex” presentation
ceased identifying as transgender
“Social desister”
continuing medical transition
discontinued a “cross-sex” presentation
ceased identifying as transgender
“Cross-dressing desister”
(usually) continuing medical transition
continuing a “cross-sex” presentation
ceased identifying as transgender
“Socially trans”/”Regretter”
continuing medical transition
continuing a “cross-sex” presentation
continuing to identify as transgender (or transsexual, or FTM/MTF, etc.)
experiences medicalization regret
“Trans detransitioner”
discontinuing medical transition
(usually) continuing a “cross-sex” presentation
continuing to identify as transgender (including nonbinary)
Different people with all of these experiences have either called themselves a “detransitioner” or have had other people refer to them as a “detransitioner.” Not everyone agrees with whether that label is accurate or not.
Where are the nuances?
Medical transition - Hormones
There are people calling themselves “detransitioners” who are continuing to take the same exogenous hormones that they were prescribed while they were actively pursuing medical transition.
Anecdotally, every detransitioner I’ve met who does this is a male who has had surgery on their genitals. In other words, their body is unable to produce its own testosterone. In my discussions with a few of these men, they continue to take estrogen largely due to the increased libido from testosterone, which can be difficult to manage without a penis; the possibility that hair growth might resume where it used to grow, including inside the cavity constructed from their scrotal skin; and because the third option (taking no hormones at all) has its own side effects (e.g., brain fog, potential loss of bone density, etc.).
There are people who would claim these men are continuing to transition, but I reject this argument. If they were to live their lives over again, they would have never taken estrogen to begin with and are now trying to cope with the existing damage. Continuing hormones in this way is simply maintenance; there are no further feminizing changes occurring.
Aside from women who are tapering their testosterone dosage rather than stopping cold turkey, I have not come across a female detransitioner who is still taking testosterone. This could be because female detransitioners are less likely to have had their gonads removed than male detransitioners, but regardless, I have yet to hear a logical reason for a woman to continue taking testosterone, particularly when we are well-aware of how damaging testosterone can be to the female body.
Medical transition - Surgeries
When I write that a detransition involves “discontinuing medical transition,” I also mean that no further surgeries are planned in service of a “cross-sex” presentation.
If a woman has decided to stop taking hormones, but still intends to pursue a cosmetic double mastectomy in the future, they plan on continuing “medical transition” by this definition, and I wouldn’t consider them to be a detransitioner.
On the flip side, though, the intention to have surgeries to “reverse” what has resulted from medical transition is not a continuation of that same treatment. If a woman has had a double mastectomy and is subsequently planning to have breast reconstruction, this is not “continuing medical transition” in the same way that it is not “medical transition” for a woman who had breast cancer.
Correcting iatrogenic harm is not “affirming.” That said, I always encourage people who are detransitioning to wait some time before making any surgical decisions.
“Cross-sex” presentation
The term “cross-sex” has appeared in quotations throughout this article because it can be difficult to draw a line between when someone is “presenting” as the opposite sex or not.
Consider the following:
Is a man with long hair presenting as a woman?
Is a woman with short hair presenting as a man?
If a woman grows facial hair and fails to remove it, is she presenting as a man? If so, does this only apply to women who have had exposure to exogenous testosterone, or does it also apply to women with, e.g., PCOS?
Is it incumbent upon a woman whose vocal range has been lowered (due to exogenous testosterone) to “train” her voice higher into a typically-female range?
Is it incumbent upon a man whose vocal range rests in a higher range (often due to years of vocal training and muscle memory) to train it back down?
Is a woman without breasts required to have breast reconstruction to present as a woman?
Is a man with gynecomastia required to have removal surgery to present as a man?
There have been a couple of “high-profile” detransition announcements in recent months where the response from people on both sides has been that those involved are not making enough of an “effort” to look like their birth sex. (This sort of response seems to only happens to people who have medicalized.)
I understand the sentiment, and I even know a couple of unambiguously-detransitioned people who are annoyed by this lack of “effort.” Personally, I can’t be bothered to care that much about a man looking too feminine or a woman looking too masculine, especially if they’re in the first few months of their detransition. It just feels too much like “trans-think” to be worried about “passing” and ridiculous to claim someone isn’t passing as their own sex when I’ve heard the “we can always tell” line a million times.
There are more steps than just aesthetic ones that count towards “presentation,” including having legal documentation that reflects reality, using washrooms that align with your sex, and how the people with whom you have relationships refer to you.
Who is a “detransitioner”?
What is a “detransitioner”? Someone who “detransitions.”
But who is a “detransitioner”? Not everyone who fits into the definition of a “detransitioner” will choose to claim it as a label for themselves, and not everyone who claims it as a label fits neatly into the widely-understood definition.
People who are familiar with my views know that I have had arguments about the label in the past and that those arguments tend to revolve around whether people who have not medically transitioned should call themselves “detransitioners.”
I have reflected a lot on this to try and isolate exactly what bothers me, and it’s not so much the personal label – I’m not that bothered by a “desister” off-hand referring to themselves as a “detransitioner” in order to save a lengthier explanation about what that means.
What bothers me most is the mental gymnastics some of these people have done in order to shoehorn themselves into the definition when they know the general public wouldn’t see them as one if they were completely honest.
It bothers me when someone calling themselves a “detransitioner” claims that they took “hormones” when the “hormones” they were on was the same birth control taken by millions of women, rather than testosterone.
It bothers me when someone calling themselves a “detransitioner” who was on Lupron as an adult for a hormone condition claims that they were on “puberty blockers.”
It bothers me when someone calling themselves a “detransitioner” claims that they were socially transitioned for a decade when they spent much of that time publicly living under their birth name.
I can’t stop anyone from claiming the label, but if you have to manipulate the public into accepting you as a “detransitioner” by withholding or reframing information, maybe you aren’t one. (Not to mention, you destroy the credibility of other detransitioners by making us look like liars.)
Someone I confronted about this issue once claimed that my problem with her claiming the label was that I wanted “the attention” to myself. She accidentally gave away her game when she said this. To her, the label meant clout. To me, being a “detransitioner” is humiliating. Maybe it’s “fun” to be a detransitioner if you don’t have to shave your face every day, if you don’t see a scarred chest when you look in the mirror, and if you don’t mourn the fact that you’ll never become pregnant. Maybe it’s “fun” when you get to be a near-miss instead of a walking freak show. I don’t know.
Pretty much immediately after that conversation, I made my point by removing the “detransitioner” emoji (the lizard) from my name on Twitter. I originally labelled myself in order to find the people I shared my experience with. Turns out I know who those people are regardless of what they call themselves.
* Note: I am aware that some gender critical people do not like the term “transition,” primarily because they say it implies the idea that one can “change sex.” I am not currently fussed about using the word “transition” for a number of reasons, including the fact that, as evidenced by this quote, some gender ideologues don’t like it! They think it implies that a “trans person” becomes their desired gender by engaging in interventions, rather than simply already being that gender. Perhaps one day I will write something more substantial on this topic, but for now, both sides can remain unhappy with my language.
Vandenbussche, E. (2021). Detransition-Related Needs and Support: A Cross-Sectional Online Survey. Journal of Homosexuality, 69(9), 1602–1620. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2021.1919479
Hildebrand-Chupp, R. (2020). More than ‘canaries in the gender coal mine’: A transfeminist approach to research on detransition. The Sociological Review, 68(4), 800-816. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026120934694
Turban, J. L., Loo, S.S., Almazan, A.N., Keuroghlian, A.S. (2021) Factors Leading to "Detransition" Among Transgender and Gender Diverse People in the United States: A Mixed-Methods Analysis. LGBT Health, 8(4), 273-280. https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2020.0437
Expósito-Campos, P. (2021) A Typology of Gender Detransition and Its Implications for Healthcare Providers. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 47(3), 270-280. https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2020.1869126
MacKinnon, K.R., Expósito-Campos, P., Gould, W.A. (2023) Detransition needs further understanding, not controversy. BMJ, 381:e073584. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-073584
Irwig, M.S. (2022) Detransition Among Transgender and Gender-Diverse People-An Increasing and Increasingly Complex Phenomenon. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 107(10):e4261-e4262. https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgac356
Pfafflin, F. (1993). Regrets After Sex Reassignment Surgery. Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality, 5(4), 69–85. https://doi.org/10.1300/J056v05n04_05
Kuiper, A. J., & Cohen-Kettenis, P. T. (1998). Gender role reversal among postoperative transsexuals. International Journal of Transgenderism, 2(3), 1-6. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270273121_Gender_Role_Reversal_among_Postoperative_Transsexuals