The White House has ordered the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study "regret" among transgender people who have transitioned, according to multiple reports.
The decision was first reported by Nature based on statements from anonymous NIH employees.
According to Nature, Matthew Memoli, M.D., who was serving as acting director of the NIH at the time, sent a memo to staff several weeks ago saying that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “has been directed to fund research on a few specific areas” related to supposed “chemical and surgical mutilation” of children and adults.
Memoli was referring to gender-affirming hormone treatments and surgeries, which are both safe and effective treatments for gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria is an intense feeling of distress that occurs when a person’s gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth.
The White House, HHS and NIH did not respond to requests for comment from Fierce Biotech.
"What they're looking for is a political answer, not a scientific one," Adrian Shanker, who served as deputy assistant secretary for health policy at HHS under President Joe Biden, told NPR. "That should be an alarm for everyone who cares about the scientific integrity of the National Institutes of Health."
A 2021 review of multiple studies that included nearly 8,000 people found that regret rates for gender-affirming surgeries are around 1%, lower than the respective 17.1% and 4.8% found in patients who received knee and hip replacements.
In fact, a 2022 study found that transgender youth who receive gender-affirming treatments like puberty blockers and hormones report significantly lower rates of depression and suicidal thoughts.
Numerous professional societies, including the Endocrine Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics, support the use of gender-affirming care in children and adolescents.
The NIH is also mandating more research on "detransitioning," which is when someone stops or reverses the transition process, for which data is much sparser. A 2025 survey (PDF) of 25 teenagers and young adults who halted a social or medical gender transition concluded that those surveyed feel lonely, alienated from the LGBTQ community and used by opponents of gender transition.
“There are people who try to use detransitioners as pawns against transition,” one participant told the researchers. “It makes me feel bad because, like, that's not what I believe and it's not my motive.”
Since his inauguration, President Donald Trump and his administration have supported an unscientific view regarding sex and gender. The administration has stated that it is “immutable biological reality” that there are two sexes—male and female—and that the administration “rejects gender ideology.”
People with intersex traits that don’t fit the typical male/female binary make up almost 2% of the population. Gender is not biological, but a social construct that has always differed across time and cultures.
In March, Trump rescinded a Biden-era memo on "Advancing the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Persons Around the World." The HHS under Trump also recently announced that patients with gender dysphoria will no longer be able to access federal disability protections.
The move comes as the NIH terminates research grants studying topics related to LGBTQ+ health and diversity. More broadly, the government has aimed to slash $4 billion in federal research costs by implementing indirect cost caps on grants, a move that was prohibited by a federal judge. The HHS plans to appeal the decision.