The U.S. Trans Survey, considered to be the most extensive survey conducted on trans health in America, reaffirms the fact that gender-affirming care saves and improves lives. The survey’s findings indicate that individuals who transitioned and then went back to living as their sex assigned mostly gave the same reason: anti-trans discrimination from their friends and family.

Released by Advocates For Trans Equality (A4TE) on June 11, the survey questioned over 84,000 trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people aged 18 and older in 2022. Of all respondents, 9% had detransitioned at some point in their lives. The survey also revealed that a trans person’s overall mental health and wellbeing depend upon rates of familial support, which also has a profound influence on one’s lifetime experiences and suicidality.

Related

Support for trans sports participation dropped since states started passing sports bans
While Democrats remain more supportive of trans people, support for trans sports participation has dropped since 2021.

“Social and structural explanations dominated the reasons why respondents reported going back to living in their sex assigned at birth at some point,” the report reads. Its findings demonstrate that Isolation from one’s support network can have devastating impacts on one’s mental health.

Never Miss a Beat

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

The survey’s findings contradict conservative media narratives about transition regret, which suggest that large volumes of trans people detransition because they later regret their transition as a mistake. The survey found that only a small number of people detransition, and the decision is largely due to external factors.

“Only 4% of people who went back to living in their sex assigned at birth for a while cited that their reason was because they realized that gender transition was not for them. When considering all respondents who had transitioned, this number equates to only 0.36%,” the survey’s report stated. On top of that, 98% of respondents said they felt more satisfied with their lives since transitioning.

The survey is also notably important considering that the Trump administration has made efforts to remove trans people from government websites and data, essentially silencing their voices and robbing researchers of crucial information to help make public policy decisions. This erasure makes it easier for the conservative majority to fabricate claims about trans people’s actual lived experiences.

“Having real concrete and rigorous data about the realities of trans people’s day-to-day lives is also a vital part of dispelling all of those assumptions and stereotypes that plague the public discourse about our community,” said Olivia Hunt, A4TE’s Director of Federal Policy, during a press briefing this week.

The report also touches on trans healthcare between 2015 and 2022. Respondents said that trust between them and their doctors had improved, but the survey also found that racial disparities, with trans people of color more likely to experience violence than white trans people.

Additionally, mental health challenges still face the trans community in large numbers: 44% of respondents met the criteria for serious psychological distress, compared to less than 4% of the general U.S. population.

Many of these issues are likely exacerbated since 2025 when Trump took office for a second presidential term. He has launched attacks against the trans community that have affected healthcare access, increased anti-trans policies nationwide, and stirred up transphobic vitriol and harassment.

Over the years, this survey’s large amount of data has been released in increments as A4TE wades through its findings.

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.