The Forgotten Victims of the Gender Experiment Are Finally Getting Attention

There is a growing population, known as detransitioners, whose needs have been ignored for too long. That is finally starting to change. Detransitioners are people who once believed they were transgender and underwent irreversible body modifications, but have since come to regret it. They have realized that they are victims of one of the biggest medical scandals of all time, comparable to the lobotomies of the past.

In August, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report called “Wolves in White Coats,” which highlighted the malpractice of the doctors and institutions that harmed them and featured detransitioners’ own testimony. In late October, the nation’s first dedicated detransition clinic opened at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, as part of a $10 million settlement with the state of Texas. Cleveland Clinic in Ohio has also committed $2 million to detransition care under a separate federal settlement. On October 1, detransitioners finally received their own diagnostic medical code, Z87.893: “Personal history of gender detransition.” This is important for their medical care, for insurance reimbursement, and for data collection. And on December 8, a groundbreaking new book written for them will be released.

Detransitioners Aren’t Rare

Trans activists commonly claim that the regret rate for gender transition is only 1%, and use that figure to dismiss detransitioners altogether. This claim is false. It rests on studies with flawed methods. In 2024, trans activist Erin Reed promoted a study from Perth, Australia, that made the 1% claim. However, that study only counted patients who reidentified with their sex while they were still being seen at a pediatric gender clinic, and it did not follow them after they left. The 1% figure came from just two of the 196 young patients who had started medical treatment, and the study measured reidentification, not regret. Its own conclusion states, “Longitudinal follow-up studies, including qualitative self-report, are required to understand different pathways of gender identity experience.”

The truth is, we have absolutely no idea how many people who transitioned now regret it and are living with physical and psychological harm. This population could not even be tracked until the diagnosis code took effect a little over a month ago. Detransitioners tend to ghost their doctors after being betrayed, and those who do go back have often been counted and treated as trans, since until October 1 there was no code to record them. Those who speak up are ostracized, or even receive death threats. The vitriol from the trans community is immense. Still, their numbers are visible online. The detrans subreddit has grown rapidly in the last few years, and as of early November 2026 it has 66,000 members and about 30,000 weekly visitors.

Even if detransitioners are “rare,” they still deserve psychological, social, and legal support. They also need specialized health care to manage the new chronic health conditions that cross-sex hormones and sex-modification surgeries induced. Many are suffering from endocrine disorders and a whole cascade of health problems as a result of reckless prescriptions of cross-sex hormones.

The Unique Needs of Detransitioners

While a wide variety of people get caught up in gender ideology (men, women, older, younger), detransitioners share overlapping needs unique to them:

1. Like a former drug addict who is detoxing, a detransitioner is very vulnerable in the early stage of regret. They are adjusting to the fact that their entire worldview and sense of self were based on lies, and their bodies are adjusting to an unnatural change in hormone levels. Their social networks were built on a false identity and empty affirmations. A detransitioner needs to withdraw from their trans friends, just as many addicts can’t be around friends who still use.

2. Most suffer from lifelong chronic health conditions as a result of hormones and surgeries. To get help, they must go back to the very doctors and systems that hurt them. Most mainstream medical and mental health institutions still take an affirming stance, and the professionals who genuinely want to help simply don’t know what to do. That leaves detransitioners with nowhere to turn.

3. Detransitioners are contending with grief, loss, and anger over permanent changes to their bodies and consequences like loss of fertility, while still dealing with the struggles that led them down this path in the first place.

4. Their entire social circle is usually gone. Those who promised to love them for being their “authentic self” usually abandon them. In many cases, people who shed the trans identity receive extreme venom from former friends who they believed cared about them. Since the trans community is akin to a cult, it encourages its members to cut off caring friends and family and adopt a “chosen family” instead. Detransitioners need guidance on how to repair those relationships and build new, healthy friendships.

5. Dating as a detransitioner brings unique challenges, especially for those whose bodies have been drastically modified.

6. Finally, in addition to their social, medical, and psychological needs, detransitioners often need legal support. They are victims of a medical scandal and deserve to be compensated.

A New Resource

I am one of 12 expert contributors to the new book Is It Time to Detransition? A Guide to Personal, Social, Psychological, Medical and Spiritual Healing. The contributors are doctors, therapists, parents, academics, and spiritual leaders who are pioneers in working with this population. They include Maria Keffler, M.S.Ed., co-founder of Advocates Protecting Children; endocrinologist Michael K. Laidlaw, M.D.; plastic surgeon Alfonso Oliva, M.D., F.A.C.S.; and Bill Donaghy, M.A., senior lecturer at the Theology of the Body Institute. The book provides insight, advice, and resources for people who have realized they made the biggest mistake of their lives and don’t know where to turn.

Forrest Smith is a man who once believed he was a woman and even underwent sex-rejecting surgery. He is now an ambassador for Resilience Health Network and the author of To Be Seen: A Detransition Story. Here is what he had to say about the book:

“I don’t know how differently things would have been had I had access to this book, say in the months leading up to the orchiectomy [surgery to remove one or both testicles], as I began to question the authenticity of my identity. I had tried (briefly) to quit my transition, only to despair and double down. Perhaps, a book like this could have steered me clear of calamity, or guided me more swiftly after the fact. Instead, I felt lifted up by the hand of God. He opened my eyes to the truth. Years passed, shedding layers, grounding myself in family, faith, and work.”

Is It Time to Detransition? is written directly to detransitioners, but it is also useful for professionals and loved ones who want to help them. With detransition care now opening in Texas and Ohio, professionals need to understand this new and growing population. Ethical providers need to step up, train themselves, and build a trustworthy network of support. Concerned parents, family members, and friends of detransitioners will also benefit from reading this book, so they can understand how to help.

Is It Time to Detransition? will be available on Amazon on December 8, 2026, in e-book and print.