diff --git a/src/core/transport/chttp2/hpack_parser.c b/src/core/transport/chttp2/hpack_parser.c
index 6d3c340a8af..0f90f08b9cc 100644
--- a/src/core/transport/chttp2/hpack_parser.c
+++ b/src/core/transport/chttp2/hpack_parser.c
@@ -627,7 +627,6 @@ static const gpr_uint8 inverse_base64[256] = {
 static int on_hdr(grpc_chttp2_hpack_parser *p, grpc_mdelem *md,
                    int add_to_table) {
   if (add_to_table) {
-    GRPC_MDELEM_REF(md);
     if (!grpc_chttp2_hptbl_add(&p->table, md)) {
       return 0;
     }
diff --git a/src/core/transport/chttp2/hpack_table.c b/src/core/transport/chttp2/hpack_table.c
index e47793f2300..e7cec99be1b 100644
--- a/src/core/transport/chttp2/hpack_table.c
+++ b/src/core/transport/chttp2/hpack_table.c
@@ -316,7 +316,7 @@ int grpc_chttp2_hptbl_add(grpc_chttp2_hptbl *tbl, grpc_mdelem *md) {
   }
 
   /* copy the finalized entry in */
-  tbl->ents[tbl->last_ent] = md;
+  tbl->ents[tbl->last_ent] = GRPC_MDELEM_REF(md);
 
   /* update accounting values */
   tbl->last_ent =