Around one in six young people treated with cross sex hormones ceased treatment.

Cross-Sex Hormones   Desistance   Detransition   Females   Males   Teenagers  

An exploratory study1 of adolescents and young adults in Canada and the US found that 16.8% of those receiving “gender affirming medical treatment” (puberty blockers and cross sex hormones) stopped “treatment” within around five years of declaring a “trans” or “non binary” identity. 

Of those who discontinued treatment, 37.3% did so for health reasons. 32% ended treatment due to a change in gender identity. 12% were persuaded by health professionals or a partner to explore different ways of approaching their gender dysphoria.

Stopping treatment was associated with having a “non binary” identity. Both continuing and non-continuing cohorts had a mean age of 16.1 when “coming out”, but those discontinuing treatment were slightly older (22.1 vs. 20.9.) 

  1. MacKinnon KR, Jeyabalan T, Strang JF, Delgado-Ron JA, Lam JSH, Gould WA, Cooper A, Salway T. Discontinuation of Gender-Affirming Medical Treatments: Prevalence and Associated Features in a Nonprobabilistic Sample of Transgender and Gender-Diverse Adolescents and Young Adults in Canada and the United States. Journal of Adolescent Health. 2024 Oct;75(4):569-577. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2024.05.015. Epub 2024 Jun 28. PMID: 38944803. ↩︎
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