The Peril of Detransitioning

If you don’t see anything wrong with this, then clearly there is something wrong with you.

Writing in The Federalist Kelsey Bolar tells the sad story of one Prisha Mosley, a woman who was persuaded, by unscrupulous professionals, to transition into manhood. Only, then she discovered the inconvenient truths about transition and decided she wanted to detransition.

She then learned, to her chagrin, that nearly all physicians and counselors refused to treat her. In fairness, she did find one form of psycho therapy that worked, a form of cognitive treatment called dialectical behavioral therapy, but the insurance company refuses to keep paying for it. 

For the record, we heartily approve of most forms of cognitive treatment.

One is horrified to read of the psychological manipulation that caused Prisha to transition in the first place. It was a mix of threats and promises:

“I was under the impression that my doctors, who were transitioning me, loved me. They said they didn’t want me to die, they were saving my life, they were worried about me, and they wanted me to be healthy and happy,” Prisha told me. “Clearly, they don’t love me. As soon as it’s not profitable, they don’t want to help.”

Obviously, these doctors should be in jail. If they could so easily manipulate a vulnerable teenager, imagine what they can do with younger children.

Of course, the doctors do not tell prospective patients of the side effects of systematically mutilating the human body:

Prisha has a slew of medical complications dating back to the more than five years she spent on testosterone and a double mastectomy that a plastic surgeon performed shortly after she turned 18. Many of those complications surround her endocrine system, which encompasses the hormones that regulate nearly every process in the body, from metabolism to growth and development, emotions, mood, sexual function, and sleep.

“I was hoping that if I could get my endocrine system working, I could be on less psychiatric medicine because low testosterone and estrogen will cause depression and anxiety, both of which I’m medicated for and don’t really like being medicated for,” she said.

Prisha also hopes that with estrogen supplements, she’ll experience some muscle and fat redistribution. After years of testosterone broadened her neck and shoulders, she now carries more weight in her upper body, which causes her chronic pain. Her throat is sore, she can no longer sing or raise her voice, and she suffers hair loss, as well as hair growth on her body, which she has to treat with costly laser hair removal sessions.

The horror is redoubled when Prisha discovers that physicians refuse to treat her. Huh?

Hormonal care to fix her endocrine system, she hopes, could help her become more feminine — and perhaps fertile again. But she said every primary care physician, endocrinologist, obstetrician, and gynecologist she’s approached on her insurance list has turned her away or said they can’t help.

Now that our culture has gone raving mad about transitioning, we are seeing an increasing number of young people who want to go back to the beginning, who want to embrace their sexual identity and who are looking to detransition.

Not only is it difficult-- Abigail Shrier called her book, Irreversible Damage-- but doctors no longer want to do it. The profession, especially those who are working in the field of gender medicine, has much to answer for.

Prisha isn’t the only detransitioner who feels abandoned by the medical institutions that pushed her into wrong-sex hormones and surgery. Over the past year, Independent Women’s Forum has documented multiple stories of detransitioners who also report being abandoned by medical and mental health professionals after deciding to detransition.