This story is from the comments listed below, summarised by AI.
Authenticity Assessment: Not Suspicious
Based on the provided comments, this account appears authentic. The user demonstrates a consistent, deeply personal narrative of detransitioning after a short period on testosterone, expressing complex emotions, evolving views, and specific medical details over several years. The passion, anger, and internal conflict displayed are consistent with a genuine detransitioner's experience. There are no obvious red flags suggesting it is a bot or an inauthentic account.
About me
I started testosterone at 18 as a masculine female who thought it was the only way to be myself. The medical process felt rushed, and I experienced permanent changes before I realized the serious health risks involved. I began to feel pressured by social expectations within the community, which led me to question everything. After stopping, I discovered suppressed information that helped me see my dysphoria as a mental pattern I could change, not a medical problem. I now live peacefully as a butch lesbian, accepting that my female body doesn't need to be fixed to live authentically.
My detransition story
My journey started when I was 18. I was a masculine female who felt uncomfortable with my body and thought that transitioning was the only way to be my true self. I went to a Planned Parenthood that used an informed consent model. I got my first testosterone prescription at that very first appointment, without any bloodwork or real psychological evaluation. At the time, I was relieved. I felt like the nurse practitioner was "on my side," but looking back, it was incredibly irresponsible. I was just a kid, and I had no idea what I was signing up for.
I was on testosterone for only three months, but the effects were intense and some are permanent. My voice dropped and cracked horribly, and it's taken years for it to settle into something that sounds female again, though I'll never get my full singing range back. I also experienced bottom growth, which is permanent. I started reading more about the serious health risks, like how testosterone causes the cartilage all over your body to thicken and harden, not just in your vocal cords but in your heart and arteries too, increasing the risk of heart attacks. I learned about vaginal atrophy, which can lead to chronic pain, infections, and serious complications. It felt like the reality of these medical consequences was being completely whitewashed.
During this time, I identified as non-binary and used they/them pronouns. But I started to feel a deep unease. It seemed like every masculine female I looked up to was suddenly going on testosterone and using he/him pronouns. It started to feel less like a personal choice and more like a social expectation, something you had to do to be valid. I felt betrayed and left behind.
The real turning point came a couple of years after I stopped T. I finally snapped and my whole worldview shifted. I decided to watch videos and read writings from detransitioners and radical feminists, people I had been told were hateful and should be avoided at all costs. What I found wasn't hate; it was legitimate information and studies that the mainstream trans community had suppressed. I learned about the clinicians who resigned from places like Tavistock in protest. I read about the long-term health complications people were suffering. I realized the community operated like a cult, with its own language, isolating people from their families, and punishing any form of dissent. I felt like I had woken up from a dream. I had been programmed.
I came to understand that my "dysphoria" was a set of obsessive, compulsive thoughts centered around hating my body. The more I focused on it, the worse it got. It wasn't a medical condition to be cured with hormones and surgery; it was a mental pattern I could change. I learned to stop those thoughts in their tracks. Whenever I'd think, "If you don't be a man, you'll never be happy," I'd pause, take a deep breath, and tell myself, "I am okay exactly as I am right here, right now. My body is healthy and it serves me."
Letting go of the trans identity I had worked so hard to build was difficult. I still don't use my birth name—it freaks me out—and that's okay. I've found peace as a very butch lesbian. I don't have to change my clothes or my presentation. I finally understand that my desire to be male was, in large part, a desire for safety and autonomy in a world that often treats women terribly. I don't have to fight my body anymore.
I have significant regrets about my transition. I regret the permanent changes to my body, especially my voice. I regret that I wasn't given proper care and was instead fast-tracked into a medical experiment. I believe doctors should gatekeep more and that non-conforming, non-medical options should be promoted and accepted. Transitioning is presented as the only solution, and it's not. It's a difficult, painful, and often harmful path that I don't think is right for most people, especially young, traumatized females.
My thoughts on gender now are that it's largely a social construct. You don't need to change your body to live authentically. Your identity shouldn't be based on what you "are" but on what you do—what makes you happy, what you work hard for. My body is female, and that's a biological reality, not an identity. I don't need to earn womanhood; it's just what I am. I finally feel free.
Here is a timeline of my journey:
| Age | Event |
|---|---|
| 18 | Started testosterone through Planned Parenthood's informed consent model. |
| 18 | Stopped testosterone after 3 months due to realizing it wasn't right for me. |
| 20 | Began the process of fully detransitioning and rejecting trans identity after deep research and introspection. |
| 21+ | Voice gradually softened and stabilized over approximately 3 years off testosterone. |
| Now | Living as a detransitioned, butch lesbian, working on self-acceptance and healing. |
Top Comments by /u/-ph-7-:
It’s wrong to have valid questions and concerns when your loved one is in a cult.
To echo some of the other posters here, you can’t convince your loved one they are making harmful choices. I’ve also had a partner who transitioned, and it felt similar to having the person I loved die before my eyes. They acted and looked and sounded different. And I made the difficult decision to end that relationship, because even though I cared for them more than I cared for anyone, I could not bring myself to accept the person they were becoming.
At some point, you need to make the choice that will preserve yourself. I know how hard it is, but you cannot manufacture the decision you want for your partner. All you can do is live your life with your own values and if your partner doesn’t align with those values anymore, it is time to say goodbye.
I felt like this EXACTLy. I myself use they pronouns but I am so afraid that every masculine AFAB I look up to suddenly needs testosterone and he pronouns to validate their existence. I know it’s wonderful that they feel they’re becoming more themselves, but I feel left in the dust. Betrayed. I KNOW it’s just a dumb fear response but... I tried the T thing and it wasn’t right for me. It really does feel like “the thing to do” to transition if you’re masculine and female now. literally WHEN did changing your body drastically become the given thing to do? ..
Like, good on elliot. Big respect for them, he is incredibly brave to transition while in a spotlight. But I’m lost and sad.
Hi there. I don't mean to scare you but the effects of blockers can be far-ranging and severe. blockers block estradiol, which is one of the 3 estrogens in your body. Estrogen helps in bone mineralization and stimulates the production of vitamin D, which also aids in bone density. The joint pain you're experiencing is likely the beginnings of osteoporosis. which we generally don't see in children such as yourself. Because you started blockers while you were still developing, you may have to live with this pain indefinitely... You can't exactly make up for missed bone mineralization during a crucial time in your development. your mitochondria, the powerhouses of every cell in your body, use estradiol to facilitate the conversion of 3 different fuel sources—fatty acids, proteins, and carbohydrates—into energy for your body. when estrogen is blocked, those fuel sources can't be switched between smoothly and your cells become misshapen and not function properly and this can turn into chronic fatigue, inflammation (which may be contributing to your joint troubles), pain ... And these problems cannot be easily corrected years after going off blockers.
I am very, very, very sorry for what has happened to you. You have not been informed properly. You need to get off blockers as soon as humanly possible. This is a physical emergency that goes before your mental health.
Please do what will save your quality of life and prevent more chronic suffering. Please. You're so young. You can learn to be happy without changing your body, I promise.
https://www.hormonesmatter.com/they-say-lupron-safe/ <—— here is where I got most of my information from.
https://www.lupronvictimshub.com/ <—— more info but a little hard to navigate
I’m detrans too. It’s like I came home to a wasteland. There’s just… no one left. And people keep asking me my pronouns, like they’re wearing me down until I admit I don’t deserve to call myself a woman because I’m not feminine.
I’m so tired. I wish there was anyone near me like me.
The “waking up” is such an experience. Literally I’ve had multiple detransers say “it’s as if after all these years I have woken up from a dream.” We were fucking programmed. Exactly like cult members. We were traumatized and vulnerable and we were taken advantage of without us even noticing.
Ok so I might be able to clarify some stuff for you but fair warning I’m not a doctor.
On testosterone , your voice dropped, and that is because the cartilage in your voice box thickened and hardened. That thickening and hardening extends to everywhere in your body—including your arteries and heart valves. This can throw off your whole circulatory system and puts all female people on testosterone at a greater risk of heart attack than cis men and women who have never been on hormones. It is VERY possible that this is why you are having trouble with your heart and you need to see a better doctor ASAP.
You’re a kid and you never deserved this. You deserve help.
Do not go to your gender doctor. Remember they’re selling you drugs and covering their asses. Maybe try a licensed endocrinologist, who has experience with PCOS—natural overproduction of testosterone that also happens to correlate with increased heart problems.
Your weight may indeed be a factor—high weight increases your blood pressure which can lead to heart problems. But your potential additional problem is that your arteries and valves have become narrower, so your high blood pressure due to weight may be that much more dangerous and not something you should have to navigate alone with a callous “just lose weight.”
Ok but the mane indicates that this lioness has an intersex condition, not a mental one. never has this lioness expressed “gender dysphoria”. Her masculine behavior is probably due to an over-abundance of testosterone. Not equivalents at all. I agree with OP.
I snapped a few days ago. My entire worldview shifted. Like, I had detransitioned medically a couple years ago but I still identified as NB. Finally I decided, what’s the harm in watching som GC detransitioners on YouTube. Some radical feminists. Who for years I was told were the scum of the earth and should never, under any circumstances, be interacted with.
And what I found were sources. Legitimate studies that proves that transitioning is a bad option. That the medical industry eats our vulnerability up in the guise of “treatment.” That dysphoria is rarely sufficiently treated by changing one’s body. I read about the brave clinicians who walked out of Tavistock. I joined a detrans discord server in which people have chronic health issues from transitioning.
I found sources that suggest convincingly that the the trans community operates similarly to a cult—with specialized language, doublethink, thoughtcrimes. Social isolation. (I was told to excommunicate myself from my family in order to live my truth. As many trans people are told.)
Again and again, I find accounts of butch women like myself who felt that being a straight man was just so, so much better than being a masculine female. I found lesbians who just want a safe space exclusive from transwomen and told that that’s bigotry.
I found radical feminist texts from the 60s and 70s that are frankly brilliant. And these were texts I was banned from reading because they don’t mention transwomen or are transphobic. I’m not saying it’s ok to be hateful. But actively banning feminist texts is a cultural cleansing. It’s witch hunts. It’s anti-woman. We are not listening to our elder women, thinking they are “behind the times.” But they were more radical, more modern than any mainstream feminism practiced today. They wanted to dismantle the patriarchy, not feed into it.
I found that the feminism practiced today is a ridiculous parody.
I am so angry. I don’t know where to go. I thought the liberals were the good guys. Now I don’t know what to think.
This article is so confusing. Though it cites the approval of various pro trans doctors and organizations, it fails to cite the studies that would back up pro trans arguments. One doctor is quoted at saying being trans ISNT a mental illness… but never defines exactly what it is, and then states that trans people “identify” as trans—which would back up the evidence that trans is actually a mental phenomenon. Author also says that detransitioners are “by all accounts vanishingly rare” while withholding the knowledge that there has never actually been an accurate detrans census—without providing a perspective of a detransitioner, who would doubtless provide an important perspective that could change the national conversation. Maybe it’s a step in the right direction but it’s still shameful journalism.