Detransitioner Prisha Mosley Warns That Transition Regret Is Far More Common Than Admitted
Her post spotlights why parents need to hear from people who regret transition before a child starts puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.
Parents deserve to hear from detransitioners before any child starts puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. On October 13, 2026, Prisha Mosley posted on X that regret over transition is far more common than people assume, and that many who regret it stay silent1. That silence hides the harm from the families who most need to see it.
The research backs up her point about silence. In a 2021 survey published in Archives of Sexual Behavior, Lisa Littman studied 100 people who had medically or surgically transitioned and then detransitioned. Twenty-four of the 100 respondents said they had informed their clinicians that they had detransitioned, and 55% felt they had not received an adequate evaluation before starting transition2. Littman said that gap "strongly suggests that records on detransition may understate the real numbers3."
Reuters reported that York University researcher Kinnon MacKinnon's team interviewed 40 detransitioners in the United States, Canada and Europe. Reuters also spoke to 17 people who began medical transition as minors and now regret some or all of it. Nearly all of them wished their doctors or therapists had more fully discussed complicating factors before allowing them to medically transition4.
WPATH president Marci Bowers told Reuters: "Highest you’ll find is 1% or 1.5% of any kind of regret." Reuters reported that no large-scale studies had tracked people who received gender care as adolescents to determine how many remained satisfied with treatment as they aged and how many eventually regretted transitioning. So how can anyone put a ceiling on regret that no one has counted? Even MacKinnon said clinicians must tell patients, especially minors, that detransition can occur4.
Those accounts give parents both the right and good reason to refuse puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for their children. Lawmakers should protect minors from sex-change procedures and guarantee that no clinic or school pushes parents aside when a child's care is decided. Parents should take detransitioners’ accounts seriously when deciding whether a child should begin treatment.
Sources
- @PrishaMosley on X, 2026-10-13: Regret over transition is a lot more common than you think. What's rare and brave is admitting it and detransitioning. Many who regret it will say nothing, continuing with the harm., 2026-10-13
- Individuals Treated for Gender Dysphoria with Medical and/or Surgical Transition Who Subsequently Detransitioned: A Survey of 100 Detransitioners - PMC
- Detransitioners received poor evaluation when transitioning | MDedge
- Why detransitioners are crucial to the science of gender care | OPENLY
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