Watson

OK gang! Let's raise some awareness about the FACTS around detransition! 1/ #DetransAwarenessDay

When I write about detransition, I like to use an estimated rate of between 1 and 3 percent of people who transition. But here's a secret, between you and me: The numbers don't reeeeeally support that. They support a rate of >1%. 2/ #DetransAwarenessDay

The overall research on detransition is still quite weak, and I want to give as generous a reading as possible to the criticsms. So, when I say 1-3%, I'm overweighting studies that show a higher rate, out of caution. 3/ #DetransAwarenessDay

This means I have to do quite a lot of cherry picking, to support my higher, more conservative estimate. Most studies give numbers more like this one, which found 0.4% regret: https://mermaidsuk.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/charing-Cross-study-nhs.pdf … Most studies support a <1% rate of detransition. 4/ #DetransAwarenessDay

So, the most important fact about detransition is that it's astoundingly rare for this type of medical treatment. Glad to get that sorted out. Hopefully we're all feeling really aware! Next we'll talk about retransition. 6/ #DetransAwarenessDay

Retransition is even less well studied than detransition, so we're in extra dicey territory trying to estimate the rate at which people who detransition go on to retransition at a later point. HOWEVER... 7/ #DetransAwarenessDay

...there are some useful numbers that can give us a framework for thinking about how common retransition is, and spoiler alert, it's almost certainly extremely common. 8/ #DetransAwarenessDay