Exploring Gender-Themed Lysergic Acid Diethylamide Experiences: A Subreddit Analysis.
Psychedelic medicine (New Rochelle, N.Y.) June 1, 2025 Rahul Katkar, Ashley M Perez, Murat Altinay et al. 4 citations
LSD experiences focused on gender identity have been reported informally but not studied systematically. Analyzing 94 anecdotes from the Reddit subreddit r/LSD, nearly half of authors identified as non-cisgender at the time of use, and most of those reported enhanced self-acceptance regarding their gender identity. Among authors who were questioning their gender, most reported clarifying effects from LSD. A minority of cisgender authors explored non-cisgender identities during their experience, and some reported that the experience introduced a persistent non-cisgender identity for the first time. Challenging experiences were reported by 17% of authors, and 11% of non-cisgender authors reported decreased self-acceptance. The findings suggest LSD may support gender identity exploration and acceptance, but the fragmentary nature of social media data requires confirmation through surveys and prospective studies.