I am disturbed by the stories I am hearing from other women who are not much younger than me. They tell heartbreaking stories of sexual abuse, mental crises, eating disorders, and lesbians explain that they experienced homophobia which ultimately led them to believe they were not right as females and were “born in the wrong body”.
Their feelings of not feeling “right” as a girl, or outright rejecting their female bodies, led them to seek out the solution online. Many of these girls feel that they found the answer to their body distress on Tumblr and, with a community of other girls in similar distress, declared themselves to actually be “Transgender”, or “boys”, or even “non-binary”. After which they were referred to gender clinics and affirmed and led down the pathway of dangerous medical intervention and surgeries. Their pain and suffering should have signaled to medical professionals that they were in need of psychological and familial healing.
The referrals to gender clinics worldwide have skyrocketed since 2013, most prominently recorded in the UK, where they saw a 4000% increase in referrals.
When speaking to the girls who went through a medical transition ( cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, double mastectomy, radical hysterectomy ) many of them tell me that they now deeply regret it.
Kiera Bell, a brave woman who now says on reflection that the issues she experienced stemmed from problems in her life and the homophobia she experienced, and these issues should have been asked and investigated critically before she was affirmed and medicalized. Kiera Bell is now suing the NHS for what she feels was locking her into the path of medical transition.
“I should have been challenged on the proposals or the claims that I was making for myself,” she said. “And I think that would have made a big difference as well. If I was just challenged on the things I was saying.”
Irrespective of the results of the Kiera Bell case, Kiera’s life has been forever altered, she cannot return to the body she once inhabited. With facial hair, a double mastectomy, and a deep masculine voice, it’s clear to see the pain, anger, and frustration she feels.
Recent studies by GLSEN show that 90.8% of all trans-identified youth are female- this is shocking and deeply troubling. After the tsunami of women who went through medical and social transition are coming out and telling us they deeply regret it, we are asking the medical community to think critically about what is going on with our girls and demand the cessation of all medical interventions on minors and young women whose brains have not finished developing.
What is equally concerning is the level of bullying that parents face when they refuse to affirm a daughter's sudden assertion that she is the opposite sex, a condition dubbed “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria”, and more troubling is the way that merely questioning a girl's sudden announcement she is a boy is framed as“conversion therapy”. This essentially means that parents are left without recourse to help their daughter with her mental crisis that does not involve making their daughter a sterile, surgically altered, lifetime medical patient.
Moreover, one cannot ignore that these surgeries are often completely experimental. One particular surgery named “Phalloplasty” has a near 80% failure rate and a shocking 2-year recovery time.
Why are ethical doctors and regulatory bodies not stepping in and questioning this? Many of these surgeons are clearly driven by greed ( a phalloplasty can cost between $80–200k) and the questionable outcomes of these surgeries certainly give reason to pause. Why is anyone allowing these surgeons to mutilate the healthy bodies of young girls to continue to get rich at the expense of some of the most vulnerable women in our society?
Phalloplasty as seen above is entirely experimental and with a massive failure rate ( see Scott Newgent )- there is a near 80% complication rate with 20% getting necrosis and sepsis.
I want the doctors to know, we see you, we want you to stop performing these experimental surgeries on confused young women and stop your aggressive advertising to teenagers on social media. Look up. The lawsuits are imminent.