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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Lots of detransition stories here:
https://www.transgendertrend.com/detransition/

These people at one point really believed they were transgender. They really thought that transitioning would make them happy. They didn't realize the truth until the harm was already done.

Maybe for a small minority medical transition does make some people more comfortable living in their bodies. But with the huge increase in trans identification. it's obvious there is something else going on. And what these kids need is not medical intervention, but good therapy. [/quote]

I read the detransition stories and stats, and I think it is comfirmatory of two strands of thinking in this thread: 1) many people have distorted and adopted what it means to be transgender to address a wide variety of issues related to gender nonconformity, general body image disappointment, social isolation -- all of which may be an element of being trans but more often relate to innumerable other problems; 2) I see little if any evidence that transgender individuals who have undergone appropriate counseling, reflection, social transition and then physical transition regret it.

An amazing 65% of women respondents reported having no therapy before physical transition.  I don't dispute there may be some bad therapists out there, but this survey doesn't really go there.  These largely are not the stories of the 14 year old surburban Washington kids I know through my children.  Some of them are exploring - am I gay, trans, bi, pan, non-binary etc.  I don't see many of those kids physically transitioning while still minors.  Those few I have seen have discussed this for a long time with friends, later a long time with family, then generally with reputable therapist or gender clinics at major hospitals -- all before  starting hormones.  The most prominent breast surgeons in the DC area known to the trans community had only done a handful of minors as of just a few years ago. And most insurances don't cover gender reassignment surgery (bottom) for minors so it is hard to believe there is an explosion going on with that front.  As of about 4 years ago, the then- director of the gender clinic at Children's Hospital said he's only seen one teenager who ever decided to have surgery detransition - and that change of heart came before the physical intervention.  And that doctor had been in the field I believe 15-20 years at that point.

We need to keep the hysteria down on all fronts.  Be vigilant as parents, question medical advice and get second (and maybe third) opinions, and have open dialogue with kids with gender issues.  But we must not let distorted media or political agendas turn our backs on the kids who suffer every minute of every day --fearful of being themselves or even telling their parents - that they need to live differently in a way most of us can barely imagine.

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