Like âdetransition,â âregretâ can also have different meanings. Narayan et al. (2021) surveyed surgeons who perform gender-affirming surgeries about their experiences with patient regret (which they reported to be in the 0.2â0.3% range). They documented three different âtypesâ of regret: âtrue gender-related regretâ (typically a change in gender identity), âsocial regretâ (typically due to external pressure from family members or societal transphobia), and âmedical regretâ (e.g., complications due to surgery). Notably, they reported that only 6.5% of patients who experienced regret believed that they had been âmisdiagnosed.â
In other words, just as we shouldnât conflate âdetransitionâ with âregret,â we also shouldnât conflate âregretâ with inadequate assessment or having been misdiagnosed as transgender. Once again, this confirms my previous point that the âmistaken and regretted transitionâ narrative only applies to a small fraction of those who detransition, and thus represents a miniscule number of people who choose to transition in the first place.
To put these numbers in perspective, letâs try a thought experiment: Imagine 10,000 people transitioning. If 2% of them experienced detransition or regret, but only 6.5% of those individuals felt that they had been misdiagnosed as transgender in the first place, that would represent 13 people. Out of 10,000. Thatâs an incredibly small number of people â no wonder journalists and politicians who want to promote the âmistaken and regretted transitionâ narrative have to rely on the same handful of detrans interviewees over and over again.