The Damage That Has Been Done

There are claims in some quarters in the US, that the damage that some transgender activists, are doing to teenage children is inexcusable ....

Teenage Years Are Confusing

..... they say that teenagers are far too young, and frankly mentally mixed up, to make life determining decisions that are as permanent as changing their sex. This teenage identity confusion has long been recognised without too much comment, as just part of 'growing up' until the recent rise of the transgender movement.

This growing up reality, is being increasingly exposed by the growing numbers of US transitioned teens who are:

(a) Trying to revert back to their former sex, after being advised to undergo radical surgery and drug/hormone treatments, and are

(b) Suing the clinics, surgeons and psychiatrists in the USA who approved and performed the treatments.

This group of at least 20 'detransitioner's', have now launched a number of law suits in several states, suing those who persuaded them that changing sex was the solution to their mental health issues, rather than advising proper psychiatric and counselling help. 

An example of this, is a teenage girl with a troubled teen life - a family divorce, and being groomed on-line, as well as anxiety and panic attacks. She lost her appetite, started self-harming and talked of suicide .... all signs of a need for psychiatric counselling - she was diagnosed with depression and generalized anxiety disorder, and given anti-psychotic medication.

But she was then persuaded by trans-influencers on-line, that she was actually in the wrong sex body, and that changing it would solve all her problems. She then started to identify as male, and told her parents and mental health providers that she was in fact transgender.

She finally approached a clinic in July 2017 to discuss this possibility but she was diagnosed with gender dysphoria by a gender therapist within an hour in her first session (frankly that is a case for a malpractice action in itself), and was then referred for 'top' surgery (the double mastectomy), after just her second appointment at just 16 years of age. 

She has now told the press: 

'I was going through the darkest and most chaotic time in my life, and instead of being given the help I needed, these doctors affirmed that chaos into reality. I don't think kids can ever consent to having essentially full bodily functions taken away at a young age before they even know what that means. I was talked into medical intervention that I could not fully understand the long-term impacts and consequences of.'

She was given the irreversible double mastectomy operation at that tender age, and now claims the surgery has left her with daily pain for five years, while the hormone drugs she also takes daily may well have robbed her of the chance of becoming a mother - certainly she won't be able to breast feed, and may well be infertile. She will likely be in poor general health after she reverts back aged 21 - a reversion that is hindered by permanent chest scars, a deep voice, and erratic hormones.

She had told the original doctors after the 'top' surgery that she had regretted the decision, but ironically they told her to seek mental health counselling (exactly what should really have happened before she was given a double mastectomy operation and put on  hormone treatments by those doctors at just 16 years of age). 

She has launched a lawsuit in Nebraska accusing the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) gender clinic of malpractice, and seeks financial damages and 'accountability for the fact that these [doctors] put me through this.'

In the USA, about 48,000 patients underwent reassignment surgeries during a five year study period, with about 13,000 procedures done in 2019, the peak year, and 12,800 in 2020.

This large number has been supported by a sharp rise in the number of teenage girls with autism, and those with other mental health issues, suddenly asking for sex reassignment in recent years .... suggestive of a coercive approach by some gender 'affirming' therapists, at gender clinics across the USA.

Recent studies are also linking puberty blockers to weaker bones and osteoporosis .... a long term threat for all those who transition. Whilst there is no denying the fact that some people really do think that they are in the wrong sex body, they are far fewer in number, than the numbers currently undergoing the surgery. 

Teens are often ambivalent about their sexuality until they reach age 19 or 20 years, and are also very impressionable .... they should be protected from making catastrophic decisions that shackle them for life, until they are at least old enough and stable enough, to understand fully the consequences (including the physical impact in both pain and physical appearance), of any decision to undergo surgery or other permanent treatments.

If these lawsuits result in large compensation payments and possible loss of medical licences for both therapists or surgeons, we may well see a far more cautious approach, when dealing with teenagers with mental health and family issues, before irreversible medical interventions take place.