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Transgender Reassignment Regret? Surgeon Says ‘Yes’, Supports More Research

October 29, 2018

Surgeon and professor Miroslav Djordjevic, a leading expert in “gender reassignment” surgery, told a Canada news outlet that he is seeing an increase in requests for reassignment “reversals”, particularly among formerly male patients who had received surgery to become female.

In an interview with National Post, Djordjevic, who has over 20 years experience in genital reconstructive surgery, said that those seeking “reversals”, many of whom tend to be over 30 years old, describe “crippling levels of depression” following their reassignment surgery, with some considering suicide.

“It can be a real disaster to hear their stories,” he told the National Post. And, he adds, these stories are not being heard.

“Definitely reversal surgery and regret in transgender persons is one of the very hot topics. Generally, we have to support all research in this field,” he said in the National Post interview.

But according to Djordevic’s colleague James Caspian, a psychotherapist specializing in gender transitions who became interested in the topic of reassignment reversal after a 2014 conversation with the surgeon, research into transgender “regret” might not come easily.

The National Post reports that Caspian approached Bath Spa University in Bath, England about studying “detransitioning” only to find the idea rejected. The National Post writes:

“According to Caspian, the university initially approved his proposal to research ‘detransitioning’. He then amassed some preliminary findings that suggested a growing number of young people – particularly young women – were transitioning their gender and then regretting it.

“But after submitting the more detailed proposal to Bath Spa, he discovered he had been referred to the university ethics committee, which rejected it over fears of criticism that might be directed towards the university. Not least on social media from the powerful transgender lobby.”

According to the National Post, Djordjevic performs over 100 gender reassignment surgeries per year in his Belgrade (Serbia) Center for Genital Reconstructive Surgery and with the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.