Bob Withers: Detransition. Part 4

You can read the other pieces in this series below: 👇

Bob Withers: Series.

Detransition

This part of the paper covers the consequences of unthinking affirmation of a gender Identity which is at odds with their biological sex. The mistake we are making is written on the bodies of our young who are taking cross sex hormones and having unnecessary surgical procedures.

Writing in June 2020, Bob notes the increasing phenomenon of detransitioners. These are people who have had some medical intervention to resolve their distress, under the aegis of a transgender identity, only to realise they have made a catastrophic mistake. Gradually we are seeing more public accounts of detransition and some, scholarly, research. At the same time James Caspian has been denied the opportunity to research this phenomenon, at Bath Spa University, due to concerns about ”reputational risk”.

There is a lack of reliable data on rates of regret / detransition. The phrase ”loss to follow up” recurs in many studies which ought not to be a surprise. Why would you return to the clinic who are responsible for your ”transition” ? We have no way of knowing how many of the missing 36%, mentioned below 👇, also regret their medical interventions.

Another feature of this research is the way completed suicides are treated. There were three suicides in a cohort followed up from a Nottingham clinic. They were not counted as detransitioners but their subsequent suicide certainly does not suggest surgery was an unmitigated success.

The use of misleading statistics about suicide, especially in relation to children, is one of the most egregious tactics used by the Transgender Lobby. It is leveraged to encourage parents to accept a “gender identity” and hasten them to affirm /medicalise. Yet the same groups show a marked lack of curiosity about solid data on post transition suicide rates.

Despite the paucity of formal research there is a growing community of detransitioners who are finding each other in on-line forums, conducting their own research and making YouTube content about their regrets.

Detrans Community on Reddit:

Since this paper was written the detrans subreddit has exploded in terms of its numbers as per below. Since June 2020 the reddit detrans forum has increased from 12,000 + to nearly 26,000 as of February 2021.

I have done two substack posts covering comments by posters, on the above forum. Below is the one on males who regret their ”transition”.

Detransitioned males

This is one on detransitioned females. There are commonalities between the two groups but also some sex specific differences in both the reasons for medicalising their distress and their decision to detransition.

Detransitioned females

The above accounts need more formal research so that we don’t continue to harm a new generation.

Dr Az Hakeem: Trans

This piece by Bob Withers also covers the work of Dr Az Hakeem, who conducted therapy for men who regretted their transition. He provides many case studies in the book ”Trans”. There are many reasons this group are marginalised/silenced. Some are related to personal feelings of culpability and foolishness about the, irreversible, medical steps they taken. Backlash from within the trans community is another reason; many are accused of risking other, trans-identified, people’s access to surgeries etc. This can be very powerful deterrent if your community of friends is drawn from within transgender groups. Many detransitioners speak of losing entire friendship groups when they detransitioned, especially if they questioned transgender ideology.

Dr Hakeem had the inspired idea of setting up a group for those with post-operative regret. He writes about how many became fixtures of this group and how it allowed them to recover self esteem. Another practice was to run combined sessions for this group and the pre-surgical group. The second group were looking forward to medical interventions. So what happened when they mixed these two groups? 98% abandoned the idea of medical treatments for their feelings of gender dysphoria

The group who voluntarily referred themselves to Dr Hakeem were a self-selecting group. Its hard to argue they were representative but it is noteworthy that they were prepared to go back to the gender clinic and make their regret clear. It is odd that this didn’t result in more research and better follow up of their post-surgical clients. Even more odd is the fact we have actually lowered the bar to medical intervention, in recent years. Given the explosion of people with a ”transgender” identity and the average time estimated for regret to set in, what kind of situation will we face in a decade?

My fifth piece from this paper will explore how young people came to their belief in a personal identity as ”transgender”.

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