Gender-affirming therapy regret very rare as study finds just 5% hold negative feelings
A study found regret among those who accessed gender-affirming hormone therapy was very low (Getty Images)
A new study has found that regret among people who starting gender-affirming hormone therapy as a minor was rare, with 96.8% saying it was the right decision.
Published on 9 November, the peer-reviewed cohort study from JAMA Pediatrics examined satisfaction, regret and harm among people who began hormone therapy before the age of 18. Researchers analysed self-reported survey responses collected between 2023 and 2025 from a cohort of nearly 400 participants.
The study found that 1.9% of participants said they felt harmed by their decision to receive hormone therapy, while 2.7% reported some regret. The study’s authors wrote that “overall decisional regret was very low.”
Do the findings support bans on youth hormone therapy?
The researchers also addressed how the results should be used in policy debates about youth gender-affirming care, which has become a political flashpoint in both the US and UK.
“The results provide further support for the existing standards of care, do not support efforts to categorically restrict or ban access to [hormone therapy] for [trans and gender diverse] youth, and caution against making assumptions about treatment satisfaction, regret, or harm based on demographic or clinical characteristics,” the study’s authors wrote.
Which groups reported higher regret?
The study found decision regret was higher among people who were not currently on hormone therapy than among those who remained on it. Regret was also higher among non-binary participants than binary trans participants, though was still low overall.
World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) board member Scott Leibowitz, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, told The Washington Post that the study “adds to the growing evidence base that demonstrates individualised gender-affirming care can be beneficial for a young person”.
In October 2024, a separate JAMA Pediatrics study similarly found very low regret among young people who accessed puberty blockers and/or hormones, as legal battles over youth trans healthcare continued to intensify.
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