Gender: Transition → Detransition

Article about me on August 8 2022 by Natasha Robinson in The Australian:

Here.

This is my rough position on the issue, for anyone interested.

I am a detransitioner. From 2015 to 2021 I identified as a trans woman and was on HRT - first oral testosterone blockers and estrogen, then a series of subcutaneous implants coupled with oral progesterone.

At that time in the state of NSW, I needed a note from a psychiatrist to commence HRT. I saw a specialist who wrote a letter indicating that his impression was one of gender dysphoria, having asked only the most perfunctory questions.

Despite the high cost and formality and the oak wood bookshelves and leather furniture, there was no robust psychiatric assessment, and many red flags were ignored. The two pieces of evidence cited in his letter: "occasional intra-psychic images of being a woman" and "owning a barbie doll house as a child" (I was actually quite stereotypically "boyish" in many ways).

I am infertile, and do not have anything in storage. I want to have children.

I went off cold turkey as a free choice. I am a man.

I have never had gender dysphoria. I believed that I was trans due to a variety of personal, social and political factors. The root of it all was my own trauma.

I try to tell my story with respect and humility.

Policy

To cut it short: I think a lot of people who self-ID as trans and pursue "social transition", HRT and even surgery will not benefit from those interventions, despite what they're being told by clinicians. I cannot cite good data, but I've seen enough empirical evidence to know we're more than a rounding error.

I have serious concerns about the affirmative care model due to the rapid institutional acceptance of a fairly extreme view of sex and gender, and the ongoing replacement of science & medicine with ideology when it comes to trans care and policy.

In principle, I support access to trans healthcare (HRT, surgery) for adults with gender dysphoria. A friend of mine - a transexual woman with a DSD - says she's never been happier since her surgery. I believe her.

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