donoharmmedicine:
Our medical system has a code for "sucked into jet engine," but none for detransitioners.
Not any longer.
Detransitioners are now no longer medically invisible. Within ICD-10-CM, the CDC has updated codes to reflect several kinds of desistance and helpful markers for tracking outcomes of patient gender transitions.
These include:
✅ "Gender Identity Disorder, in remission," which is applicable to patients who no longer struggle with gender dysphoria.
✅ A trio of: "Personal history of social gender transition," "Personal history of medical gender transition," and "Personal history of surgical gender transition," under the preexisting "Personal History of Sex Reassignment" for further specificity of their medical journey.
✅ "Personal history of intersex surgery" for applicable individuals.
✅ "Personal history of unspecified gender transition."
And the big one…
✅ "Personal history of gender detransition" for those who return to living as their natural sex after having experienced a prior transition.
This is a big win for clinical excellence and patient care, allowing further clarity and more exacting documentation.
Moreover, the "detransitioner label" itself is a huge acknowledgment that gender transition can, at the least, go wrong, and that the system needs a way to recognize a patient's regret and its own shortcomings.
It's not perfect, but it's a start.
Right now, we celebrate with detransitioners for this breakthrough.