Over 90,000 Satisfied Responses In Trans Survey; Largest Detrans Survey Only Had 100

Narratives of transgender regret have been prevalent in anti-trans media. A recent 90,000 response survey of trans people, however, shows most people are satisfied with transition.

Ted Eytan / Creative Commons

The early results of the 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey are in, and they are stunning: For transgender individuals who have transitioned and are living as another gender, only 3% report lower satisfaction rates, with 79% stating they are "a lot more satisfied" after transitioning. That number is even higher for transgender people receiving gender-affirming care – 98% of transgender individuals taking hormones are more satisfied with their lives. These numbers challenge prevailing narratives in anti-trans media that transgender people experience significant degrees of regret or resentment towards their transition, including those published in The New York Times last weekend.

The survey managed to get responses from over 90,000 transgender people - more than 3 times the responses of the 2015 survey. This number represents a significant fraction of the estimated 1.6 million transgender people in the United States, and immediately becomes the largest dataset on transgender people in history. The vast majority of these transgender people report increased satisfaction, despite an increasing number of anti-trans laws passed in recent years.

These figures contradict recent media narratives, such as those published by Pamela Paul in The New York Times, suggesting that transgender individuals regret transitioning and that transition does not enhance the lives of trans people. For instance, Paul references a detransitioner under the subhead, "The Process of Transition Didn’t Make Me Feel Better." While it is undisputed that transition does not improve outcomes for a small number of individuals, the release of this survey following The New York Times story highlights the skewed coverage, showcasing 4,500 words of regret without so much as mentioning the words “joy” or “satisfaction” experienced by most transgender individuals.

Satisfaction after gender transition, James, S.E., Herman, J.L., Durso, L.E., & Heng-Lehtinen, R. (2024). Early Insights: A Report of the 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey. National Center for Transgender Equality, Washington, DC.

It should be clear, following the release of this data, that detransition and regret is rare and do not represent the normal transgender experience. Even the largest of the studies by Lisa Littman, Pamela Paul’s favorite “rapid onset gender dysphoria” and detransition researcher, only could recruit 100 responses from detransitioners after medical transition, excluding a slightly larger 239-response study that also included desistance and non-medical transition. This is despite a similar sample collection method, utilizing convenience sampling in common detransition forums. If detransitioners are so common, why do they seem to be so incredibly hard to find? If regret is the prevailing narrative, why has there never been a study showing high levels of regret among transgender people?

While there are undoubtedly more than 100 or 239 detransitioners, most studies place the detransition rate somewhere between 1-3%. Studies showing higher rates often come from decades-old data that lumped feminine gay boys and masculine girls in with transgender kids, even if they did not identify as trans.

This year, over 370 bills have targeted transgender individuals in the United States, and many of the debates surrounding these bills focus on the fear of transgender regret. Proponents of these bills use this rationale to justify banning care and show no sign of halting their efforts. In released audio of Republican legislators in Ohio and Michigan, they state that the "endgame" of this legislation is to "ban this care for everyone." Anti-trans documentaries, regularly published by both right-wing media outlets and mainstream journalists, often highlight trans regret. These documentaries invariably feature the same dozen detransitioners to justify these bans. The consequences of such bans on care would be severe, directly resulting in a decline in life satisfaction for the transgender individuals responding to this survey.

The release of this survey’s early results should be a clear signal that fact checkers need to interrogate claims of high regret that are not justified through the sources anti-trans journalists and columnists often cite. Publishing stories that center on transgender regret and portraying them as a common narrative distorts the reality around gender affirming care that has been found by over 50 studies and every major medical organization: that gender affirming care improves saves lives for transgender people.

Despite this, anti-trans columnists cannot seem to stop covering the stories of the 100 found in Littman’s studies while discrediting or ignoring the stories of the other 90,000.