Michael Kerr
Detransitioner and founder of Detransition Pathway UK
Michael Kerr's journey — from gay man in Scotland to transwoman and back again — runs directly through NHS pathways that millions of British patients depend on. As founder of Detransition Pathway UK, he is pressing the health service to recognise detransition as a clinical need in its own right, not an afterthought.
Michael Kerr grew up in Scotland and came out as a gay man before eventually seeking transition through NHS services. His route followed the path available to Scottish patients: a GP referral that led to the Sandyford clinic in Glasgow, one of the NHS's principal gender identity services. In the Beyond Gender episode From Gay Man to Transwoman... and Back Again (June 2026), Kerr speaks with uncommon candour about what he found at each stage — and about the NHS failures that, in his account, shaped both his transition and his eventual decision to detransition.
What makes Kerr's testimony particularly pointed for British listeners is its specificity. The Sandyford clinic, the GP gateway, the absence of structured support on the way back: these are not abstractions but the lived mechanics of NHS gender care at a moment when that system is under intense scrutiny. His account arrives as England's NHS continues to implement the recommendations of the Cass Review, and as questions about what happens to those who change course remain largely unanswered in official policy.
Kerr's response to that gap is practical: he founded Detransition Pathway UK to press for dedicated clinical support for people who detransition — not pastoral add-ons, but a recognised pathway within the health service. The organisation addresses a constituency that, as Kerr argues, has been treated as an inconvenience rather than a patient group with distinct needs.
Across his conversation with hosts Stella O'Malley, Mia Hughes and Dr Bret Alderman, Kerr situates his personal history inside a systemic argument: that the NHS was not prepared for the scale of referrals it received, was not prepared for the complexity of individual cases, and is still not prepared for the people now finding their way back.
