Updated CDC codes will support de-transitioners, medical watchdog says

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(The Center Square) – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will implement several new diagnosis codes that medical watchdog Do No Harm says are important for supporting those who underwent transgender procedures and later detransitioned.

Chief medical officer at Do No Harm Dr. Kurt Miceli told The Center Square: “We are thrilled the CDC is adopting ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes to finally account for desistance and detransition.”

“The codes we proposed, and the CDC has now released, will significantly enhance and refine patient care to ensure those desisting from gender dysphoria are properly recognized,” Miceli said.

“Likewise, giving detransitioners visibility in the medical system will help them get the medical attention they need and open the door for proper coverage and real-world research into the impact of sex-rejecting interventions,” Miceli said.

The health care system has allowed detransitioners to be "invisible," he said, and the new codes will help bring them into the open and improve care.

The CDC announced that the new ICD-10-CM codes will be effective Oct. 1, 2026.

According to Do No Harm, ICD-10 codes are used by physicians, insurance companies and researchers, and “allow doctors to categorize patients’ diagnoses for the purposes of medical recordkeeping, billing, and health data collection.”

So far, there have been no diagnosis codes for those wanting to reverse their sexual transition, Do No Harm said. The CDC’s code updates will “help ensure that those who desist from their gender dysphoria are seen and counted,” according to Do No Harm.

Additionally, the codes will help to ensure a more accurate documentation of patients’ clinical states as well as help to ensure patients receive appropriate delivery of care, Do No Harm said.

One of the codes included in the ICD-10-CM code update is F64.A, “Gender Identity Disorder, in remission,” or “Gender dysphoria, in remission (desistance).”

“This code will be applicable to those patients who no longer meet the diagnostic criteria for gender dysphoria – that is, those for whom a marked incongruence no longer exists between their ‘experienced/expressed gender’ and their ‘assigned gender,’” Do No Harm said.

A trio of codes included in the updates entitled “Personal history of social gender transition” (Z87.8901), “Personal history of medical gender transition” (Z87.8902), and “Personal history of surgical gender transition” (Z87.8903) will allow for “more accurate recordkeeping and thus improve real-world data collection on the status of patients’ ‘gender transitions,’” Do No Harm said.

Further, the code “Personal history of gender detransition” (Z87.893) will also “be available to describe those who revert back to living in conformity with their sex after having previously ‘transitioned,’” Do No Harm said. 

“These ICD-10-CM updates represent a major win for those who oppose pediatric transgender ideology,” Do No Harm said. “But they are a victory, too, for those who merely want to see medicine practiced compassionately and with a basis in science.”

The CDC has not yet responded to The Center Square’s request for comment.