“I made a mistake, and I would have been better off if someone had helped me in a different way,” former transgender person Luka Hein said about regretting getting a mastectomy at 16. “At that time, I thought, I'm part of a group with extreme beliefs, and I need to leave.”
Hein is one of many de-transitioners who were previously transgender and later went back to identifying as their biological sex, and they detail their suffering in the book. Detrans: True Stories of Getting Away from the Gender Ideology Cult, which will be published next month. The author, journalist Mary Margaret Olohan, explains how doctors encouraged teenagers to get hormone blockers, cross-gender hormones, and “top surgeries” but then ignored their later regrets and wishes to de-transition.
Several important medical groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, and American Psychiatric Association, endorse believe in giving appropriate care that supports the gender identity of transgender and non-binary individuals, states Human Rights Campaign.
Olohan noticed various troubling patterns in the experiences of the de-transitioners in her book: mental health problems, excessive use of social media focused on transgender chatrooms, and quick approval of life-changing transgender procedures.
“None of the people in my book understood what they were getting into when they started taking hormones or having surgeries,” Olohan told The Dallas Express. “The girls who had double mastectomies hadn’t thought about whether they wanted to breastfeed or have children.”
“I was particularly struck by how representations of womanhood affected the detrans girls in my book — how they rejected the idea of being a woman not only because of activists and activist content online, but also due to the unrealistic portrayals of femininity they saw on Instagram and the overly sexualized, demeaning images of women in pornography,” she continued.
Chloe Cole, one of the de-transitioners in the book, was sexually assaulted in eighth grade when a classmate grabbed her breasts. She said this violation led her to loathe her femininity and want to get rid of her breasts. She told Olohan that her interest was fueled by pornography and the transgender content she encountered on Instagram due to the platform's algorithms.
Cole started taking hormone blockers at 13 and had a mastectomy at 15. She began to de-transition a year later after expressing regret.
Prisha Mosley, another de-transitioner featured in the book, was raped at 14, which resulted in a pregnancy and miscarriage due to her eating disorder. She told Olohan that the sexual violence caused her to reject her female body, and this rejection was further supported by transgender discussion forums on social media. A doctor prescribed testosterone for her, and she underwent a mastectomy at 18.
Mosley soon began to express regret. Her boyfriend's child started to call her “mom,” which she said motivated her to fully de-transition.
Abel Garcia, a biological male interviewed for the book, was informed by a college counselor during his first year that his confusion about his sexuality was due to being transgender. He then chose to start taking cross-gender hormones, which his father did not approve of.
His dad took him to a place for people offering sex in Mexico to try to convince him to accept his masculinity. This experience made him want to have surgery to change his sex even more, but later he regretted it as he struggled with alcoholism. Eventually, he got better and went back to identifying with his original sex.
Olohan's book describes the experiences of people who changed their minds about transitioning because of similar experiences of trauma and mental health problems. They asked doctors for help with their transition, but later the same doctors refused to support their decision to go back to their original sex.
Olohan said that when people who had detransitioned like Abel Garcia go back to their doctors and say they regret their transition, the doctors say it's just part of their 'gender journey.' The Dallas Express. Olohan's book includes stories of detransitioners who feel that medical professionals refuse to acknowledge that their transition failed, and they don't want to see the suffering caused by their failed attempts to transition.
Olohan's findings suggest that doctors may not care enough about people who want to detransition. She believes the medical community needs to develop a proper process for detransitioning to ensure the safety of those with gender dysphoria.
There isn't a clear process for medical detransitioning right now because gender groups and doctors are so focused on insisting that very few people regret their transition procedures that they haven’t given any attention to the detransitioners asking for help, The Dallas Express. Olohan believes that courageous doctors need to come forward and offer their time and services to help detransitioners who have been misled by the medical system and deserve proper care.
The National Health Service in England recently criticized gender clinics for their ambitious approach to transgender procedures on children, with Dr. Hilary Cass stating that the evidence for hormone inhibitors and cross-sex hormones for minors is “remarkably weak.” She said these practices should not be used for most young people with gender dysphoria. reported by The Dallas Express. Several of the people who detransitioned and are featured in Olohan's book have taken legal action against doctors, therapists, activists, and medical institutions for violating their rights as patients.
The lawsuits serve as a warning to medical professionals, according to Olohan, that they can no longer harm children while claiming to provide care. She believes a reckoning is on the horizon.
The Dallas Express . The book titled Detrans: True Stories of Escaping the Gender Ideology Cultwill be available on May 28 and can be preordered
. Luka Hein, a former transgender person, expressed regret about getting a mastectomy at 16, saying he needed help and felt like he was in a cult at that time. is available on May 28 and can be preordered here.
