This story is from the comments listed below, summarised by AI.
Authenticity Assessment: Not Suspicious
Based on the comments provided, the account appears authentic. The user explicitly states multiple times that they are not detrans but are a "non-trans natal woman" who is engaged and knowledgeable about the topic. Their comments demonstrate nuanced understanding, personal reflection, and the ability to cite and discuss scientific studies, which is atypical for a bot. The passion and strong opinions align with the expected demeanor of someone deeply invested in the subject matter. No serious red flags of inauthenticity are present.
About me
I never transitioned myself, but reading the stories here opened my eyes. I started commenting out of frustration with the idea that womanhood is just a feeling, because I’m a woman who was deeply uncomfortable with my body due to the male attention it brought. My research into the medical side horrified me, especially learning how puberty blockers can permanently harm children's development and lower their IQ. I also came to understand that for some males, the desire to transition is driven by a sexual paraphilia, which is a dangerous thing to medicalize. Now, I believe our culture is misleading vulnerable people, and my only advice is to stop and think before making any permanent changes you can't take back.
My detransition story
I was never transgender or detransitioned myself, but I spent a lot of time reading and learning from the stories of detransitioned women in this community. My own journey into this space came from a place of deep concern, and it fundamentally changed how I see the world, gender, and the medical system.
A lot of my comments were made out of frustration with the common idea that being a woman is about "feeling comfortable with female sexual characteristics." That idea is not only wrong but offensive. I am a woman, and for a long time, I was not comfortable with my body. My breasts, my hips—they made me a target. They made me feel scrutinized and unsafe in a way that men simply don't experience. Women are oppressed because of our biology, not our feelings about it. A woman in a coma is still a woman. Reducing womanhood to a feeling erases the reality of our lived experiences and the political class we belong to.
My deep dive into this topic led me to research the medical side of things, specifically for kids. I was horrified to learn that doctors are giving puberty blockers to children as young as eight years old. This isn't a conspiracy; it's documented in medical journals. The more I read, the more alarmed I became. This isn't harmless. The research, though limited, shows that these drugs can cause serious damage. They can prevent kids from reaching a normal bone density, and studies on children taking them for precocious puberty show they can cause a significant drop in IQ—around seven to nine points. These drugs aren't a pause button; they actively harm development and can lock a confused child into a path they might otherwise have grown out of. I believe most gender-dysphoric kids would desist if allowed to go through natural puberty.
I also came to learn about autogynephilia (AGP) through my time here. From reading people's accounts, it became clear to me that for some males, the desire to transition is deeply tied to a paraphilia—a sexual arousal at the idea of being a woman. I saw comments from people describing how their fascination started with crossdressing cartoons or specific kinds of porn, and how their "gender euphoria" was intertwined with sexual excitement. I don't think there's anything morally wrong with having a paraphilia, but I do think it's dangerous to confuse it with an innate identity and then medically alter your body because of it. It's like feeding a compulsion until it controls your life.
My overall thoughts on gender are that it is a social hierarchy based on sex, not an internal identity. For me, being a woman is about my biological reality and the social and political experiences that come with it. I don't regret my own transition because I never transitioned. But I have immense regret and anger about a medical and cultural system that I believe is misleading vulnerable people, especially young girls who are uncomfortable with puberty and gay kids who struggle with internalized homophobia, into making permanent, life-altering decisions.
My advice to anyone questioning was always the same: if you're not sure, stop. You can always resume hormones later, but you can't always reverse the changes. It's okay to pull over and look at the map before you drive further down a road you might regret.
| Age | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| N/A | N/A | Never medically or socially transitioned. |
| N/A | 2019-04-28 | Commented on the definition of womanhood, arguing it is biological, not based on feelings. |
| N/A | 2019-08-29 | Researched and shared findings on the dangers of puberty blockers for children, including impacts on IQ and bone density. |
| N/A | 2019-10-06 | Began discussing the concept of autogynephilia (AGP) as a potential driver for some male transitions. |
| N/A | 2019-10-29 | Advised a questioning individual to stop HRT if unsure, as changes are often permanent. |
Top Comments by /u/Ergative_Absolutive:
If you're not sure you're on the right road, don't keep driving; pull over and look at the map. You can always resume HRT/transition later on if you decide it's right for you, but it's unlikely that you will be able to fully reverse the changes brought about by FtM transition if you continue it for much longer. If you're not sure you want that—and it sounds like you aren't—you should stop and reconsider.
How is feeling most comfortable having female sexual characteristics not an essential quality of womanhood?
Being biologically female is an essential quality of womanhood. That's it, that's all, end of story. A woman in a coma--who would have no feelings about her biological sex one way or the other--would still be a woman.
Also, please do not assume that those of us who are women (original definition) "feel most comfortable having female sexual characteristics." Honestly, you do realize you're on a sub for detransitioners, right? You do understand that there are many women here who did not and in some cases still do not feel comfortable with their "female sexual characteristics"?
Globally, women and girls are murdered and mutilated because of their female sexual characteristics. Even in the US, women are sexually assaulted and sexually harassed with depressing regularity, because of our female sexual characteristics; women's bodies are policed and scrutinized in a way that men's bodies are not, again because of our female sexual characteristics; our intellectual capacities, our right to control over our own reproductive systems, our *personhood* all remain matters of public debate, yet again because of our female sexual characteristics.
Let me be clear that I am neither trans nor detrans, and I generally try to respect that this space is not for me and lurk rather than comment. However, your comment annoyed me enough that my fingers slipped on the keyboard.
I don't want to speak about other people's experiences, but I think if you do some reading on this sub you'll find the answers. However, based on my own reading of detransitioned women's narratives, I think it's a huge, huge mistake to imagine that all or even most of them detransitioned simply because they realized that they "felt most comfortable having female sexual characteristics."
In any event, as a non-trans natal woman, I can tell you to fuck right off with with your claim that a woman is someone who "feels most comfortable having female sexual characteristics." This is wildly offensive nonsense.
You left out the fact that the actual cohort ended up being 11–20 year olds though
Fair point, although (a) putting an eleven-year-old on cross-sex hormones is still plenty horrifying and (b) Olson-Kennedy et al. made quite the impassioned call to begin administering cross-sex hormones to "trans" kids not on the basis of calendar age but rather developmental stage—specifically, Tanner Stage 2, which begins as early as eight in normal female puberty. I have every faith the good doctors will put that principle into actual practice as soon as they get the chance, if they haven't already.
given that blockers can postpone the decision to an age when they're better able to make a permanent choice.
Bullshit. Puberty blockers are neither benign nor fully reversible. They prevent necessary gains in bone density: the bone density of kids who have been on puberty blockers for one year is one standard deviation below the mean, and kids who have been on puberty blockers for three years are two standard deviations below the mean. Puberty blockers damage brains as well as bones: studies of pediatric patients before and after "treatment" show an IQ loss of seven to nine points. All this, and they don't even seem to effectively manage dysphoria; on the contrary, they likely lock children and teenagers into a dysphoric state, depriving them of the chance to come to terms with their biology as they mature mentally and physically. Gender dysphoric children who are not affirmed in a cross-sex identity are more likely than not to desist.
Also, if you're horrified about hormones creating permanent changes in young bodies, you should also be worried about the effects of natural puberty on trans kids
Even more bullshit. Puberty is not a pathology. It is a necessary developmental event.
Here's the thing, though: I'm not parroting memes and I'm not making up shit I don't know. Unfortunately, research on the effect of pubertal blockade on cognition is scant and small-scale. However, the studies that do exist all support the same conclusion and dovetail with what we know from animal studies, the effect of GnRH agonists on adult cognition, and the role of puberty in neurological maturation.
Here's a good overview of the current state of knowledge, and here are the existing studies on pubertal blockade and IQ:
Psychological assessments before and after treatment of early puberty in adopted children (2001): A longitudinal study and the most robust study to date. N=25. After two years of pubertal blockade, an average drop of seven IQ points was observed.
Cognitive, Emotional, and Psychosocial Functioning of Girls Treated with Pharmacological Puberty Blockage for Idiopathic Central Precocious Puberty (2016): Not a longitudinal study, so somewhat less persuasive. However, the findings point in the same direction as the 2001 study: a cohort of fifteen girls treated with GnRH agonists for precocious puberty had an average IQ eight points lower than that of matched controls (94 vs. 102).
Brain Maturation, Cognition and Voice Pattern in a Gender Dysphoria Case under Pubertal Suppression: This is the study I assume you are referring to in your comment. (Please don't put words in my mouth about "tranny pills," by the way.) N=1, so not significant by itself, but it mirrors the larger pattern: after two years on puberty blockers, the patient's IQ dropped by nine points, from 80 to 71.
I understand why you find this upsetting, but I am not talking about you as an individual, and while I respect that you have painful personal experience with underage transition that I do not, I don't believe you have a right to determine how other people talk about the risks of puberty blockers. Call out misinformation, sure, but don't confuse "misinformation" with "information that distresses me." Again: there is not nearly as much research on puberty blockers and IQ as there should be, but the research that does exist all points in one direction, and that direction is alarming. I am not pulling this out of my terven ass.
Being weirdly affected by episodes of cartoons that featured crossdressing
I remember watching lesbian porn as a teenager and being jealous I could never be a part of that. Having my first kiss was great but not nearly as exciting as I imagined it being...in which I was also a girl.
I like trap/trans porn and to me that isn't gay. I sometimes foray a little bit into "sissy" stuff
All of this is textbook AGP.
Not detrans, but I have what I believe to be highly legitimate saltiness towards the psychopharmaceutical establishment for badly mishandling my teenage mental illness, so I'll delurk to say that (a) N=1 is BS and (b) pimozide should be a treatment of last resort. People are free to make their own medical decisions, but even my terfy self would be horrified if clinicians started pushing pimozide as a treatment for dysphoria. If my own ride on the head pill carousel has taught me anything, it's that sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.
Who the fuck is giving 8-year-olds testosterone? That doesn't even make sense.
Johanna Olson-Kennedy, Diane Ehrensaft, and their team of medical child abusers, that's who. From the linked article:
Regarding age, the minimum age in the inclusion criteria for the gender-affirming hormone cohort was decreased from 13 years (as stated in the original grant proposal) to 8 years in order to ensure that potential participants who might be eligible for hormones based on their Tanner stage would not be excluded due to age alone.
u/Her_Name_Is_Leigha might also be interested to learn that yes, doctors do give puberty blockers to "trans" eight-year-olds:
The population of children undergoing histrelin acetate implants for a transgender-related diagnosis included 92 unique patients from 12 hospitals . . . The average age at the time of implant placement for transgender children was 14 years (range 8.8 to 18.8 years).
In the future, I'll try to be more clear about disclosing the limited state of current research. I'm going to be honest: I'm not an endicrinologist or anything close to it, but I'm better equipped to read scientific journals better than the average Joe, and I would be pretty surprised if it turned out that puberty blockers don't tend to produce a modest decrease in IQ.
All that being said, despite my initial annoyance I do appreciate your feedback. For what it's worth, statements about populations don't necessarily extrapolate to the individual; I'm truly not speaking about your personal situation, and I don't think there's a lot of point in wringing our hands over what our IQ might have been under other circumstances. All of us can play this game: What if I'd been raised in a bilingual household? What if I'd started playing a musical instrument from a very young age? What if my mother had breastfed me longer? What if I hadn't gotten that concussion in fifth-grade gym class? But none of these questions lead anywhere productive. We can't change our own childhoods; we can only do our best by children in the here and now based on the information that currently exists—and I believe this means not putting children on puberty blockers.
I was specifically asking about OP's experience of "gender euphoria."
In other words: waiter, I did not order this word salad.
Edit: After a few minutes' reflection, I feel my initial comment was overly harsh. Thank you for taking the time to explain your thoughts to me. I disagree with most of what you said, but again, I appreciate you sharing.