This story is from the comments listed below, summarised by AI.
Authenticity Assessment: Not Suspicious
Based on the provided comments, the account "GabrielleOnce" appears authentic. There are no serious red flags suggesting it is a bot or inauthentic.
The comments demonstrate:
- Personal, nuanced experience with HRT, detransition, and related medical/social concerns.
- Empathetic and varied advice that is responsive to different OPs' situations.
- Consistent perspective over time, including their own stated personal struggle with whether to detransition.
- Natural language with conversational tone, minor errors, and personal asides.
About me
My journey with gender has been long and complicated, starting with hormone therapy for over three years. I now see that a lot of my desire to transition was tied to anxiety and a struggle to accept being a feminine man. I was always worried about my fertility and how my body would change if I stopped. I'm still figuring things out, but my main goal now is to work on my mental health and build self-confidence. I don't have huge regrets, but I'm learning to have more compassion for myself as I decide what's next.
My detransition story
My whole journey with gender has been long and complicated, and I’m still figuring it out. I was on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for about three and a half years. For a long time, even while I was taking hormones, I thought about detransitioning. It was always in the back of my mind.
A big reason I transitioned was because I was really uncomfortable with myself. I think a lot of my feelings were tied up with other mental health issues, like anxiety and low self-esteem. I spent a lot of my younger years, especially in middle school, trying to act in a certain masculine way to protect myself, and that was really tough. I now see that some of my desire to transition might have been a form of escapism, a way to run away from dealing with those deeper problems. You can’t just transition and have your mental health issues magically disappear; you still have to work through them, and sometimes the stress of transitioning can even make them worse.
I also really struggled with internalized ideas about what it meant to be a man. I now think it’s perfectly okay to be a feminine man. You don’t have to follow a specific path just because you see other people online doing it. You have to own what feels right for you.
Fertility was a major concern for me from the start. It was so important that I banked sperm before I started HRT, but I was always worried that my samples wouldn’t work in the future. I knew someone who was on HRT for two years and it took them five years to get back to full sperm production, but it did happen. So I know the body can recover, especially if you're young.
When I started to seriously consider stopping HRT, I was worried about the physical changes reversing. I learned that if you stop, things like breast growth and bone density have a high likelihood of returning to normal over time. Working out and building muscle can also help reduce the appearance of breasts. I also looked into things like electrolysis for dealing with body hair if I were to go off hormones.
Socially, detransitioning is its own kind of transition and it takes adjustment. It can be hard. You might feel dysphoric about features that changed, like breasts or body hair. But I also know that if you were born male and go off estrogen, your natural testosterone is pretty effective at returning a lot of your old masculine features.
I don’t have all the answers yet. I’m still struggling with whether detransitioning is the right path for me. It’s a super personal decision and it’s real and it’s hard. But I’m determined to work through everything and figure it out. My main goal now is to just be me, whatever that looks like. To work on building my self-confidence through goals and meaningful relationships, and to have more compassion for myself. I did what I thought I needed to do in the past, and now I'm just continuing to do what I need for myself now.
I don't have huge regrets, but I do see things more clearly now. I think I would tell my younger self to work on mental health first and really explore all the reasons behind the desire to transition before taking medical steps.
Here is a timeline of my journey based on what I've shared:
| Age | Event |
|---|---|
| (Before 18) | Banked sperm before starting transition. |
| 18 | Started Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). |
| 21.5 | Had been on HRT for 3.5 years; actively considering detransition. |
| (Various ages in early 20s) | Continued to struggle with the decision to detransition, researched physical and social aspects of stopping HRT. |
Top Comments by /u/GabrielleOnce:
You are not a failure and you are not dis-crediting transgender people. Don’t internalize the politics of anti-trans people, you have to live your truth! Anyway, You can always be an ally to trans people in the future.
Once you tell your dad and therapist, you will feel better. If it feels really tough, you can write them a letter too but it sounds like you know what to say.
Good luck in high school being you!
Just start with small steps to figure out what you need to do to be comfortable. Start coming off hrt, you don’t need to publicly detransition immediately. See how you feel off of hrt, you would keep a lot of the masc feature regardless but at least stop the receding hairline. Maybe start exploring laser for the body hair? I’m sure your parents and frat bros want you to be happy.
It can feel like such a big deal in the moment but it sounds like you have a supportive Dad who will be there for you either way. Just do what’s right for yourself as I am sure that’s what he wants for you. Also, try having less shame and more compassion for yourself, you did what you thought you needed in the past, now your continuing to do what you need for yourself. Goodluck!
It really depends on the person and why you are detransitioning.
Some people have super smooth detransitions, basically letting their natural hormone cycle return and they jump back in where they left off. I think the longer you have transitioned the more adjustment it will take. Managing the social side could be hard for some people, it really is another transition to it’s self and takes it’s own period of adjustments.
Some struggles may be in dealing with leftover physical aspects from their transition, they may feel dysphoric about some of their features like breasts or body hair.
Then other people who experienced dysphoria before they transitioned that was cured by their transition may begin to experience dysphoria again and start transitioning again or find other ways to cope.
I will say that if you transitioned mtf and return to testosterone it is pretty effective at returning a lot of your old male aspects. If you don’t get a lot of facial hair or had ffs, there are lots of femme guys and guys with limited facial hair. So not the end of the world.
This doesn’t sound that different than other afab detrans stories I have heard. You don’t have to have transitioned due to some huge trauma in order for detrans to be valid. It seems like your not into the effects of T anymore, so maybe explore stopping hrt but not changing social aspects until your comfortable with that side. Take small steps to make yourself more comfortable, whatever direction that takes you.
I see less of this in really life and more in online communities. I know that during the first few years, you just feel like you stand out and probably have some bad experiences with cis people.. It kinda can be consuming and take up a lot of your identity but then after it becomes more of your normal life and you focus on other hints and become less vocal.
To be honest, some people are very focused and know exactly what they want to do, but most don’t. The key right now is to keep taking steps to improve your life. Taking general education classes, reading, exercising. Save funds, try new things. Slow progress, your 20s are a whole decade of adventures.
Congrats! Did you ween off? U got so bloated when reducing spiro..
I think officially it’s best to reduce down to not shock your body but you do you. Good luck with everything!
It can be hard to completely avoid and if you are aggressively avoiding something, it can either create a trigger moment when you eventually do run into something or create negativity in your life. Reducing and creating healthy barriers that don't overwhelm you is probably the best option.
Trauma can be tough to work through, and then you think you have handled it and then there is some new dimension that brings it back... That said, from your post and comments it seems like the trauma is connected to your experience with your gender and identity, so working through that with someone would probably be a good idea. Maybe you should have worked through that more before you transitioned but maybe you weren't ready yet, or you didn't have the support to. All I know is that when you look in the mirror and see your abuser, you are not them. You are your own person, and you can build respectful, kind relationships with the people in your life. You deserve it.