IMPORTANCEMedical education, research, and clinical guidelines are available to support the initiation of gender-affirming care for transgender and nonbinary people. By contrast, little is known about the clinical experiences of those who discontinue or seek to reverse gender-affirming medical or surgical interventions due to a change in gender identity, often referred to as detransition. OBJECTIVE To examine the physical and mental health experiences of people who initiated medical or surgical detransition to inform clinical practice.DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Using constructivist grounded theory as a qualitative approach, data were collected in the form of in-depth interviews. Data were analyzed using an inductive 2-stage coding process to categorize and interpret detransition-related health care experiences to inform clinical practice. Between October 2021 and January 2022, individuals living in Canada who were aged 18 years and older with experience of stopping, shifting, or reversing a gender transition were invited to partake in semistructured virtual interviews. Study advertisements were circulated over social media, to clinicians, and within participants' social networks. A purposive sample of 28 participants who discontinued, shifted, or reversed a gender transition were interviewed. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURESIn-depth, narrative descriptions of the physical and mental health experiences of people who discontinued or sought to reverse prior gender-affirming medical and/or surgical interventions. RESULTS Among the 28 participants, 18 (64%) were assigned female at birth and 10 (36%) were assigned male at birth; 2 (7%) identified as Jewish and White, 5 (18%) identified as having mixed race and ethnicity (which included Arab, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and South Asian), and 21 (75%) identified as White. Participants initially sought gender-affirmation at a wide range of ages (15 [56%] were between ages 18 and 24 years). Detransition occurred for various reasons, such as an evolving understanding of gender identity or health concerns. Participants reported divergent perspectives about their past gender-affirming medical or surgical treatments. Some participants felt regrets, but a majority were pleased with the results of gender-affirming medical or surgical treatments. Medical detransition was often experienced as physically and psychologically challenging, yet health care avoidance was common. Participants described experiencing stigma and interacting with clinicians who were unprepared to meet their detransition-related medical needs.CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE This study's results suggest that further research and clinical guidance is required to address the unmet needs of this population who discontinue or seek to reverse prior gender-affirming interventions.

Gender non-conforming and sexual minority youth are overrepresented in the homeless youth population and are frequently discriminated against in shelters and youth serving organizations. This paper provides a contextual understanding of the ways that institutional and governmental policies and standards often perpetuate the social exclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and 2-Spirit (LGBTQ2S) youth, by further oppression and marginalization. Factors, including institutional erasure, homophobic and transphobic violence, and discrimination that is rarely dealt with, addressed, or even noticed by shelter workers, make it especially difficult for LGBTQ2S youth experiencing homelessness to access support services, resulting in a situation where they feel safer on the streets than in shelters and housing programs. This paper draws on data from a qualitative Critical Action Research study that investigated the experiences of a group of LGBTQ2S homeless youth and the perspectives of staff in shelters through one-on-one interviews in Toronto, Canada. One of the main recommendations of the study included the need for governmental policy to address LGBTQ2S youth homelessness. A case study is shared to illustrate how the Government of Alberta has put this recommendation into practice by prioritizing LGBTQ2S youth homelessness in their provincial plan to end youth homelessness. The case study draws on informal and formal data, including group activities, questions, and surveys that were collected during a symposium on LGBTQ2S youth homelessness. This paper provides an overview of a current political, social justice, and public health concern, and contributes knowledge to an under researched field of study by highlighting concrete ways to prevent, reduce, and end LGBTQ2S youth homelessness.

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