Excerpt from Trans Life Survivors by Walt Heyer, pgs. 109-111

Recently an email arrived in my inbox with the subject “I wish I had listened to you” that shows the human casualties from the “grand experiment” on children. Max [not his real name], now in his mid-twenties, transitioned in his teens and now realizes he was too young to make the decision to take cross-sex hormones and undergo surgery.

Max’s young body is permanently damaged because doctors have no definitive idea as to who will persist in a condition of gender dysphoria and yet propose irreversible treatments for young people who feel conflicted about gender. As Max found out, even strongly held feelings change.

Subject: I wish I had listened to you

I’m only in my mid [twenties]. I transitioned in my teens and had surgery. I was [too] young to make such a decision.

I’ve sunken into such a deep regret. I don’t even feel transgender anymore. I feel like my old self. I am happy with a female appearance but that is all I really needed.

I feel like I was brainwashed by the transgender agenda and by gender norm expectations. I would do anything to [have] my penis back.

My feelings were confusing, and I thought they would never go away. I’m just a guy who’s really in touch with my feminine side.

I can’t believe what I’ve done to my life. And now I have no choice but to take hormones forever. I don’t know what to do. I feel like I’m losing my mind. All I would have had to do was discontinue my hormones and everything would have been alright. I honestly feel 100% normal and okay . . . if only I had never had that surgery.

Max

This story merits further thought: this young man’s doctors would no doubt say that Max gave fully informed consent to have his perfectly healthy male anatomy sliced away. But how can that be so, when you see him awakening to what he has lost, and recognizing the surgery as a mistake? How could a teenager truly understand what he was giving up by eliminating his normal sexual development; the opportunity to become a husband and father; the blessing of living with the normal body chemistry of a man rather than force-feeding his system female hormones—for life—and with that a host of life-long medical risks?

Doctors have no scientific basis for their recommendation to prescribe hormone blockers, cross-sex hormones or transition surgeries for children with gender dysphoria. The truth is that no one can predict whether a gender dysphoric child will feel the same way years later.

Kristina Olson, a child transgender research psychologist at the University of Washington, puts it this way: “We just don’t have definitive data one way or another.” That’s why Olson is leading a study of 300 trans children that will track outcomes over 20 years, “to be able to, hopefully, answer which children should or should not transition,” she said.[1]

In other words, doctors simply don’t know right now. Someday, perhaps, but in the meantime the damage to this generation of trans kids is underway. Parents are at a loss,  and early adopters of teenage transition are contacting me with regret.

 

[1] Shaban, B., Campos, R., Villarreal, M., Horn, M. and Carroll, J., “Transgender Kids Could Get Hormone Therapy at Earlier Ages” , The Investigative Unit of NBC Bay Area, May 18, 2017, accessed on July 10, 2017 at https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/Transgender-Kids-Eligible-for-Earlier-Medical-Intervention-Under-New-Guidelines-423082734.html