Why researchers are afraid to study detransition – a summary drawn from detransitioners’ own words

1. Career-ending backlash inside academia
Detransitioners report that universities and medical journals treat detransition as a taboo topic. “It would be a career ender for me to be truly open and transparent about all of my thoughts and even lived experience with detransition,” says TeaLadyGreyHot, a therapist who tried to launch a study and could not find a single collaborator source. Ok_Dog_202 adds that even tenured professors fear publishing results that conflict with the dominant narrative: “If you are in a liberal specialty within academia, that is a career-destroying move” source.

2. Universities and journals block or bury the work
Institutions refuse ethics approval or halt projects outright. ValiMeyer quotes researcher James Caspian, whose MA on detransition was stopped by Bath Spa University because the topic was deemed “politically incorrect” source. Meanwhile, journals face activist pressure: “the trans rights activists try to shut down any study that might count the people missed,” notes tole_chandelier, referencing the campaign against Lisa Littman’s Brown University study source.

3. Researchers self-censor and withhold unfavorable data
Some investigators simply decide not to release results that undermine transition-affirming care. TeaLadyGreyHot points to Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, who is “withholding results from a federally funded study” because the findings go against her beliefs source. Others quietly drop detransitioners from follow-up studies: Crocheted-tiger recalls that once she told her gender therapist she was detransitioning, “I was never contacted for the follow-up of the study I was in” source.

4. Flawed study designs systematically undercount detransitioners
Existing research uses definitions so narrow that most detransitioners never appear in the data. tole_chandelier lists the exclusions: only people who legally reversed a name change, had surgical reversal, or still identify as trans are counted. “How many people here fall into any of these categories? Damn few,” she says of the detrans community source. Recruitment is also skewed: studies advertise in queer centers where detransitioners no longer go, so Ok_Dog_202 notes, “none of these liberal studies have found me. A conservative study did” source.

Conclusion
Taken together, the firsthand accounts reveal a climate of fear: universities refuse ethics approval, journals reject manuscripts, activists organize public campaigns, and individual researchers face professional ruin. These pressures create a chilling effect that keeps the true scope of detransition hidden and leaves many questioning people without the full picture they need to make informed choices.