This story is from the comments listed below, summarised by AI.
Authenticity Assessment: Not Suspicious
Based on these comments alone, the account appears authentic. The user expresses a consistent, nuanced, and emotionally charged viewpoint that aligns with the stated experiences and frustrations of some detransitioners/desisters. There are no obvious red flags of automation or inauthenticity. The arguments are complex, self-referential (citing personal experience and a partner's experience), and show a development of thought over time, which is difficult for a bot to replicate convincingly.
About me
I started transitioning because I felt deep self-hatred and wanted to escape my trauma and depression, believing my discomfort with puberty meant I was born in the wrong body. Online communities reinforced this idea, telling me my female body was bad and that changing it was the only answer. I now see my gender dysphoria was a mental illness I needed to treat, not affirm. I've detransitioned and learned to accept myself as a masculine woman, and I no longer hate my body. I regret the pain it caused and wish I'd been offered help for my trauma instead.
My detransition story
My whole journey with this started because I felt deeply uncomfortable with myself and my body. I now see that a lot of this was tied to unprocessed trauma and other mental health struggles I was having, like depression. I also had very low self-esteem. For me, and for a lot of the people I knew, transgenderism became a coping mechanism. It was a form of self-hatred and, strangely, a way to finally fit in somewhere.
It became my safe space to be someone else and escape from myself. It was like an obsessive thought, an escape from all the things I was dealing with. My partner, who also went through this, said the same thing—that for him, it was a way to escape being himself. I started to believe that my discomfort with puberty and my hatred of my breasts meant I was born in the wrong body. I associated my breasts with femininity and being sexualized, and I thought that because I was a tomboy and liked masculine things, that must mean I wasn't really a woman.
I got really sucked into online communities that reinforced these ideas. It's so easy to fall down that rabbit hole, especially when you're surrounded by people who are heavily involved in it. They push this idea that if you don't fit a gender stereotype, you must be trans, and that transitioning is the only answer. There was no questioning, no looking at other viewpoints. It felt like everyone was just telling me my body was bad and I needed to change it.
I now believe that what I experienced was a mental illness—gender dysphoria. It’s a condition that makes you hate your body and feel like you can't live in it. But the key thing I've learned is that it's possible to overcome this mental illness, or for it to fade over time, without permanently changing your body. Transitioning shouldn't be the first and only treatment we offer. If someone with anorexia thinks they're fat, you don't agree with them and give them liposuction; you treat the mental illness. I feel the same way about gender dysphoria.
I benefited a lot from stepping back from those online spaces and starting to question things. I had to unlearn the idea that my physical body had any bearing on my personality. I'm just a female who has different interests than a typical girly girl, and that's okay. I don't hate my body anymore. I feel better after accepting that I can be a masculine woman.
I do have regrets about my transition. I regret how deeply I got into it and how it was glorified as this beautiful thing, when it was really just me trying to cope with pain and confusion. The whole experience caused me a lot of pain, and I see it causing pain for others now. I wish there had been more help available that wasn't just about affirming that I was in the wrong body. I needed help processing my trauma and mental illness, not just a path to transition.
I also think internalized homophobia played a part for a lot of us, though I didn't say that directly in my comments. The pressure to conform and the hateful treatment of detransitioners by some parts of the trans community is terrifying. We're silenced and called transphobic or TERFs just for sharing our experiences, and that's really sad. It's hard to have these views when they're so different from the norm, but I know I'm not alone.
Here is a timeline of my journey based on what I’ve shared:
| Age | Event |
|---|---|
| During Puberty | Started feeling intense discomfort with my body and development, hated my breasts. |
| Late Teens | Found online trans communities; began to socially transition as a way to cope and escape. |
| 20 | Was deeply involved in the community, believing transition was the only answer. |
| 22 | Began to seriously question my transition, realizing it was a coping mechanism for trauma and mental illness. |
| 23 | Detransitioned. Started to accept myself as a masculine woman and work on my mental health. |
Top Comments by /u/AmaterasuXOX:
I know exactly how you feel, it honestly sucks. I've come to just entirely censor myself around a lot of my friends. Only my partner knows how I truly feel, and one close friend with the same views as me. It really is hard having different views than the "norm" and seeing what's really going on. I'd love to meet like-minded people but it's so hard to find them a lot of the time! I'd love to see like, a small discord server with like-minded people someday or something, that would definitely be really cool, or something similar. Nice to have this subreddit at least but it's still so hard somedays. Especially being surrounded by people who are extremely into the trans thing and would scream at me for being "transphobic."
I felt all of this as a tomboy. Hatred of your breasts and body are often from you associating them with femininity and sexualization. Dysphoria comes from gender stereotypes, gender stereotypes can indeed make you hate your body. But liking to be masculine, not enjoying stereotypical girly girl things and liking to hang out with boys over girls does not make you any less of a woman. That would be stereotypical. Women can be very masculine and not enjoy anything feminine, it's all part of being a person with your own unique interests. From acting masculine and liking to be boyish probably made you associate your breasts with harmful female stereotypes and made you uncomfortable about it, but there are ways to unlearn this. I felt better after accepting I'm just a female who has different interests than the typical girly girl and that's okay.
Wow this is just terrifying. They have no reason to be treating detrans people like this, the detrans community deserves to be acknowledged for all that we've suffered due to this mental illness. I'll never understand why people can be so hateful towards detrans people and have no level of understanding of what we all went through.
In my opinion I'd say so, through my own experience and people around me, it's mostly unprocessed trauma and mental illness and influence of an obsessive community. Transgenderism was for me a coping mechanism and a form of self-hatred and a way to fit in, and for my friends I see they also use it as a way to cope with things such as OCD and depression as an obsessive thought or an "escape." My partner who went through trans said it was his "safe space to be someone else and escape himself," even while he was transfem. So personally, I'd say so. But others may disagree.
Personally I just don't think so. A lot of detrans people were genuinely transgender, and dealt with gender dysphoria and wanted to be in the opposite genders body and such, it is a mental illness after all. Gender dysphoria is simply a mental illness that makes you hate your body and think you can't be in your own body. The thing is, sometimes people can overcome their mental illness, in this case gender dysphoria, or for some people it goes away on its own over time. That does not mean they weren't really trans, or that they never had gender dysphoria, it simply means they didn't give into their mental illness. No one is born in the wrong body.
I just feel like there should be more help that isn't just telling someone they're genuinely in the wrong body and their body is bad and they should change it. It's truly disgusting to me how people will just tell others that they're right about their body and transitioning is the way to go, without any second thought or questioning. A lot of "trutrans" people will also not look at others viewpoints on it which will push them further into believing transitioning is the right decision. So I definitely do not believe in "trutrans" or that detrans people were never trans.
It's so easy to get sucked into this rabithole especially when surrounded by people who are heavily involved in it. It's genuinely terrible that you can't speak out or simply say you are detrans without people screaming transphobia and that you're an "EVIL TERF." I'm really sorry you got treated this way, it's because people are so hateful to detransitioners or gender critical people we are always silenced for our views it's really sad. You don't deserve this treatment and we're here and understand you. I hope your friend gets the help they need.
Remember that gender roles are just an idea and you can still be masculine, be a tomboy, etc. as a woman. You don't have to follow any stereotypes at all. It also helps to take a break from social media and online spaces, get active and do things outdoors. Remember your physical body has no bearing or meaning on your personality and self, and it doesn't have to be changed. I hope you get thru this well, I know it's very hard.
It is terrible. Modern society seems to like pushing gender roles with transgenderism rather than allowing people to be themselves without it making them another gender. It's so ridiculous at this point. I hate that people are pushed to transition and mutilate their bodies as if it's something beautiful and a fair treatment. I wish just this whole gender crisis of today would be over already to be honest.. it's done nothing but cause confusion and pain and glorify mental illness.
But trans IS a mental illness. Anyone who is "truly trans" is experiencing a mental illness. You need to be mentally ill to be transgender. Detrans people often also experienced gender dysphoria and either worked through it, got different treatment or it faded over time; it's simply that transition isn't the treatment we should be going to. It does not mean detrans people were never trans. It's clear if we didn't raise the whole trans community on "transitioning is the answer and gender dysphoria can't be fixed without it" we wouldn't have so many people transitioning.
Sure some people are "happy" but who's to say they will be 7 years down the line? It's quite common to regret surgery and even then a lot of people who are happy this way were never taught or never accepted that this is a mental illness and we need other treatments. If an anorexic person thinks they're too fat, you're not gonna tell them they're right and give them liposuction to be more skinny to "affirm" their mental illness would you?