Commentary
For years, the public has been sold a false narrative: Children who experience gender distress must be affirmed—socially, hormonally, and even surgically—or they will suffer devastating mental health consequences. But the data is beginning to paint a more sinister picture.
A large-scale Finnish study tracking young people referred for gender dysphoria found that the primary driver of poor mental health outcomes was not gender identity itself, but underlying psychiatric conditions. Even more unsettling, medical interventions such as hormones and surgeries did not demonstrate a clear impact on reducing suicidal risk.
In other words, the treatments being presented as lifesaving are not addressing the pain and root problem whatsoever. The current model of treating gender-confused youth is not delivering on its promises.
When I was a teenager, I was subjected to coercion to “become” a boy, because my doctors and counselors peddled this as the solution to all of my problems. Turns out, it wasn’t.
I vividly remember walking into many doctors’ and therapists’ offices. I was depressed, had an eating disorder, and grew up in a tumultuous environment as a kid. That combination is usually a recipe for disaster. The root cause wasn’t that I was trans—no, it was because I had been through several traumatic experiences that no teenager or adolescent should face.
I am a detransitioner—meaning that I am someone who went through the processes of “gender-affirming care” and have now reverted to identifying with my biological sex—a woman.
My experience is just one out of many. Several of my friends and peers have experienced the same coercion and pressure to “accept” that they are another sex.
The Finnish study is not alone. Another study done in the UK found that the evidence for pediatric gender medicine is “remarkably weak” and that young patients often present with complex mental health needs requiring comprehensive psychological care, not surgical mutilation.
Putting these two consequential studies together, it shows a clear picture: the way that we currently handle these issues is flat-out wrong.
Children who present with distress, a rough home life, and being chronically online are often put on a conveyor belt of social transition, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and irreversible surgeries. Even more outrageous is that some of these can get approved in a doctor’s office without the consent of a parent or guardian. To do this behind parents’ backs and to encourage secrecy surrounding their social transition should be a crime.
The result of these practices has been disastrous for trust in our institutions, trust in our healthcare system, and even trust in our school districts. Escalating these so-called “treatments” only further amplifies their harmful effects.
Hormonal interventions affect bone density, fertility, and long-term endocrine function. Surgical interventions are irreversible. These are profound medical decisions being made for patients who are, by definition, still developing.
My fight for justice is not simply about my own experience, although I have been through hell and back. It is fundamentally a question of ethics in medicine that the legal system must answer. The evidence is stacking up against the false narrative that trans surgeries equates to lifesaving care. Children placed on this path often do not and will not fully understand its consequences until years later. By then, the damage has already been done.
Without action in every state, every medical institution, and every governing body, there will be continued pressure to worship an ideology with no scientific backing. The data is no longer in question. The evidence is settled. I believe the consensus is clear: we must end this abominable practice immediately.