I was speaking to a patient about how I have been seeing an uptick in de-transitioners. During the conversation I used the phrase "accidentally transitioned" and the patient remarked that this was a better way of saying it.

Upon thinking about it, this may be a better way to characterize these people.

Instead of being someone who de-transitioned, or who was transgender and no longer is, a better way to describe them would be someone who accidentally transitioned.

They never were transgender in the first place. They made a mistake. And so these are not transgender people who have decided to stop being transgender, they are people who mistakenly took hormones because they thought they were transgender and they were not.

The world has no problem with people who made a mistake with their sexuality or life partner. There's someone I care deeply about who realized after marrying a man that that wasn't what she really wanted with her life and now she's married to a woman and they are expecting a child. She's much happier now. Society has no problem with somebody making a mistake like that and correcting it.

Why should this be any different with people who make a mistake with transitioning?

Regardless, my question is this, do you think that phrasing it in this way is a superior way of doing it compared to saying "detrans" or "detransitioning" ?

I don't want to start using it this way unless the community collectively thinks this is a better way of doing it. I'm trying to spend more time listening to you all before speaking and so I really appreciate the input anybody can give.