Detrans, what it is, what it isn't.

By: Christopher B. Ostrowski, X.T.

Detransition? Detransitioned? Detransitioner? What is Detrans?

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However you use it, Detrans is shorthand for an idea; a working description of a group who has lived experience of attempting to follow the affirmative gender model purported as “life-saving,” and after a duration of medicalization, either through hormones, surgery, or a combination of both, ultimately sees the externalization of the inner conflict has caused more harm than good, and desists sabotaging themselves with the ideology further, seeking a deeper meaning of the reality of their immutable birth sex. 

Transgender medicine, especially surgical interventions to alleviate what is being called “dysphoria,” are invasive, and destroy healthy tissue, often with disastrous consequences like partial or complete sexual nerve damage, deep scars with wound healing complications, and the creation of artificial organs which fail to come realistically close to a natal “equivalent,” often with severe complications which lead to depression and suicidal ideation. 

Suicidal ideation is the reason many are led by affirmative gender interventions to proceed with medicalization. We are led to believe by media and the medical community that without these costly and crude interventions which attempt to hack our bodies for the illusion of being the opposite sex, suicide is inevitable. Yet, after the interventions, many still succumb to their depression, others feel trapped in the role they built themselves in, and many still deal with the same depression and anxiety they had prior to the interventions. Those who have been through it seem to understand the limitations of this form of “therapy,” and have intimate knowledge of the visceral dangers. 

Detransistioners are a fantastically diverse and inclusive set of individuals. They have come from all walks of life, and have undergone different procedures and durations of medicalization, but they are not “transphobic,” a term which misappropriates the Latin, “phobia,” in a grossly inaccurate way, and they are not hateful. This is a group which largely had little to no comorbidity screening or meaningful, psychologically enriching treatment of their prior mental health issues before starting medicalization, and many have significant past medical traumas which complicate things further. 

Many have lost the ability to make their own hormones, becoming completely dependent on the pharmaceutical industry to prevent further problems from developing. Some seek what scant surgical reconstructions are available to help them not have to face the damage on a daily basis, others are filled with fury at the medical field, and want nothing to do with them outside of a medical malpractice suit for a gross lack of due diligence.

Detrans is not an identity, so much as a working description of our right to pursue happiness to recompense the pain and suffering left in the wake of what should have been an affirmational, brave, and culturally progressive thing to do; transition from one sex to the other. The problem is, that’s not possible. Sex is immutable. 

United, we stand to protect children from accessing these dangerous services, and we encourage parents and political leaders to hear from those of us who have gruelingly explored “being trans,” to the point of regret. 

First, do no harm. 

Second, stand up for what’s right. 

Third, stand United.

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By: Christopher B. Ostrowski, X.T. 

10/30/2022