A US columnist has given voice to the suffering of detransitioners who as teenagers were ‘unquestioningly affirmed’ in their gender-confusion by medics.
Writing in The New York Times following her interviews with several detransitioners, Pamela Paul questioned the prevailing “treatment orthodoxy” of trans-drugs and irreversible surgery for “children with gender dysphoria”.
Last year, a group of international experts warned that ‘gender-affirming care’ in the States was “exaggerating the benefits and minimising the risks” of sex-swap drugs and surgery.
Grace
Grace Powell, 23, told how she was only 12 or 13 when she believed herself to be a boy.
Transitioning magnified what I found was wrong with myselfGrace Powell, detransitioner
Influenced by online content and feeling “detached” from her body, Grace embarked on a course of ‘hormone therapy’, followed by sex-swap drugs. Before finishing College she had had a double mastectomy.
Having now detransitioned, she wishes “there had been more open conversations” about her gender confusion and depression, and admitted: “the process of transition didn’t make me feel better. It magnified what I found was wrong with myself.”
But she explained, “I was told there is one cure and one thing to do if this is your problem, and this will help you”.
Kasey
Speaking to Pamela Paul, 23-year-old woman Kasey Emerick said she was persuaded by trans websites, as a teenager, that her emotional and mental turmoil could be resolved if she were a boy.
I realised that I had lived a lie for over five years.Kasey Emerick, detransitioner
Prescribed testosterone at 17, she subsequently underwent surgery to remove her breasts. She said: “Transition felt like a way to control something when I couldn’t control anything in my life”.
Living as if she were a man for five years, Emerick told Paul that her mental health symptoms were only getting worse, so she decided to detransition, confessing: “I realised that I had lived a lie for over five years.”
Garcia-Ryan
Looking back to his teenage years, Paul Garcia-Ryan said that he was 15 when he was affirmed in the false belief that he was a girl and “had a medical condition that could be tended to”.
You’re made to believe these slogans. Evidence-based, lifesaving care, safe and effective, medically necessary, the science is settled — and none of that is evidence based Garcia-Ryan, detransitioner
While at college, he began ‘transitioning’ in an attempt to address his mental distress, but went on to suffer complications from sex-swap drugs and genital surgery and eventually detransitioned.
He told Paul: “You’re made to believe these slogans. Evidence-based, lifesaving care, safe and effective, medically necessary, the science is settled — and none of that is evidence based.”
‘Ideological extremism’
Paul writes: “Transgender activists have pushed their own ideological extremism, especially by pressing for a treatment orthodoxy that has faced increased scrutiny in recent years.
“Under that model of care, clinicians are expected to affirm a young person’s assertion of gender identity and even provide medical treatment before, or even without, exploring other possible sources of distress.”
In the face of “ostracism and silencing because of the toxic politics around transgender issues”, Paul criticised those who ‘demonised’ detransitioners and called for greater “compassion” for the likes of Grace, Kasey and Garcia-Ryan.
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