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Reddit user /u/Ilianthyss's Detransition Story

Detransitioned: 30
male
low self-esteem
porn problem
took hormones
regrets transitioning
escapism
autogynephilia (agp)
influenced online
anxiety
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The user's extensive, highly personal, and medically detailed narrative about their experiences with autogynephilia (AGP), hormone experimentation, and gender non-conformity is complex, internally consistent, and reflects the kind of passionate, raw, and often angry perspective common among individuals in detransition/desister communities. The technical knowledge of endocrinology is specific but plausible for someone who has deeply researched their own condition.

About me

I was born male and my journey started with a deep insecurity about my body and an obsession with transformation fantasies. I spent years trying to become more masculine while secretly exploring femininity, which I now understand was driven by a powerful sexual fetish. I experimented with hormones in my late twenties, but they just made me feel depressed and killed my libido. Discovering the term autogynephilia was a revelation that finally explained my feelings. I don't regret exploring my identity, but I'm glad I never fully transitioned, as my drive wasn't a true identity but a sexual obsession.

My detransition story

My journey with gender has been long and complicated, and it’s deeply tied to my sexuality and a feeling that something was always off with my body. I was born male, and from a young age, I felt different. As a teenager, I was deeply insecure and became obsessed with transformation and transhumanist ideas. I was heavily into a specific kind of porn, TF/TG stuff, which is all about turning into a female. I was obsessed with the idea of what a "female me" would be like; I wanted to be her as much as I wanted to be with her.

I tried to overcompensate by trying to be super masculine. I lifted weights, but I could never get big, and I now think I had unrecognized low testosterone my whole life. I always played female characters in video games. I’m straight, but I started buying dildos and knew all about prostate massage. I didn't feel guilty about it, but I kept it all a complete secret.

My parents were terrified I might be gay. They would accuse me of it and get angry about anything they saw as effeminate. They started calling me names like twink, fairy, and faggot. I remember finally snapping at the dinner table one night and yelling, "So fucking what if I'm gay?" even though I wasn't even sure I was.

In college, being trans wasn't a big thing yet, but I learned about it online. I was elated that a "sex change" might be possible, but when I read about the procedures from back then, I decided it was desperate and to wait. I played with the idea that I might be gay and started dressing in a more gender-nonconforming way, enjoying trolling people a little bit. I couldn't get off with a girl without imagining I was one.

In my 20s, the fantasies of being female got stronger and stronger. I’d only get off on the idea of being male about 20% of the time. I dressed more flamboyantly, dyed my hair, and bought female clothing, getting aroused from wearing them. I’d have repeated attempts to "masc up" that always ended with me using dildos and buying makeup, which I told myself was for public speaking like a male politician. I started crossdressing in private with breast forms and a bra, using various things to simulate having a vagina.

I asked gay friends if what I was feeling was gay, and they said no, which confused me. I had this deep feeling of wanting to be fucked like a female, to submit. I had awkward conversations with a few trans-identified people. The gay men couldn't relate to my feelings at all; they liked men and being men. But one person who was transitioning was incredibly turned on when I described my "transformation fetish," which freaked out some of my straight friends.

I started to wonder if my feelings were hormonal. I noticed that when I felt like being fucked, I’d get a weird burning sensation around my prostate. I thought it might be related to estrogen. I experimented with herbal stuff like lavender oil and drinking nothing but soy milk for months, but it didn’t produce the sensation. It was a dual obsession: trying to raise my natural testosterone while also wondering if my cross-gender feelings were from estrogen.

By the time I was going on 30, being trans was everywhere. I started hanging out with trans people online and in real life, asking them "What are you? What am I?" I dropped all the furry stuff and focused purely on the feminine aspect. I bought female outfits, put on full makeup and a wig, and was completely blown away. I would stare at "her" in the mirror for hours, practicing a female voice. I started dropping hints at work that I might be trans, wearing panties and subtle nail polish.

I obtained estradiol and progesterone and started taking low doses. My nipples got sensitive and puffy, but my libido died. I was depressed, moody, and had erectile dysfunction. I wasn't getting that heat in my prostate that made me beg to be sodomized.

Then COVID hit, and I had to stop. Around the same time, I found the term autogynephilia (AGP). When I heard the definition—arousal at the thought or image of being a female—my jaw dropped. There was a name for it. I started talking to other self-aware AGP people online. I kept playing with hormones, thinking maybe AGP people should still transition, but the estrogen kept making me feel like shit—bored and not horny. I eventually realized I was probably hypogonadal and had possibly made it worse by messing with hormones.

Since then, I’ve stopped trying to feminize myself hormonally. I’ve been trying to understand my testosterone levels and my sense of sexual pleasure, and how it all integrates with AGP. I’ve tried to amplify my AGP as much as possible, almost like a form of OCD, wondering what it would take to "crack my egg" for good, but it hasn't happened. I have another mental condition that makes it nearly impossible to feel genuine pleasure.

I don’t regret exploring this because I needed to understand it, but I’m glad I never fully medically transitioned. I see now that my drive was largely a powerful sexual fetish, not a true identity. My thoughts on gender are that we are a sexually dimorphic species; the mind is not completely separate from the body. The idea that we are blank slates is a lie. I believe in morphological freedom—people should be able to do what they want with their bodies—but it has to be based on reality and fully informed consent, not confusion and fetishistic delusion.

Looking back, a lot of my struggle was tied to low self-esteem, anxiety, and an obsessive mind. I was influenced by online spaces and my own escapism into fantasy. I benefited from learning about non-affirming perspectives that challenged my desires instead of just affirming them. My experience has made me skeptical of the current medical approach to gender.

Age Event
Teenager Started with TF/TG porn obsession, insecurity about body, began weightlifting.
College Age Learned about transition online, considered it but decided against. Explored GNC dressing.
Early 20s Cross-dressing in private, using dildos, strong fantasies of being female.
Late 20s Obtained estradiol and progesterone; experienced low libido, depression, ED.
~30 COVID hit; discovered term AGP; stopped hormonal experimentation.
Present No longer attempting to feminize; focused on understanding testosterone and AGP.

Top Comments by /u/Ilianthyss:

8 comments • Posting since May 31, 2023
Reddit user Ilianthyss (desisted male) explains HPTA shutdown after testosterone, recovery timelines, and the lack of specific medical protocols for detransitioners.
8 pointsJun 12, 2023
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The state you're in is likely what is called HPTA shutdown. There are various other drugs and conditions that cause it.

Most here will tell you that it's temporary. From what I've read, probably, for most anatomically intact younger men. It seems to take months at least.

There are supervised recovery protocols called "post-cycle therapy" a TRT clinic might be able to do, common drugs are Tamoxifen, Clomid and HCG. The people asking for this are most likely to be bodybuilders on heavy roids (and only 10% of them bother, so I've read) or TRT patients that want to have a kid. This hasn't been studied all that well, in medical literature. There is nothing that applies directly to detransitoners, last I checked. That might change. There was an endo posting here, saying they've got papers coming. Eventually this will get more medical attention.

Reddit user Ilianthyss (desisted male) comments that masculinity is largely driven by testosterone and suggests TRT as a solution for those struggling with it.
7 pointsJun 12, 2023
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I would ask about TRT. "Masculinity" is mostly just a chemical, that can be injected. At least that's how I'm characterizing it, after years of reading annoying grifting and philosophizing about the topic.

Vs. anyone that's using that cheat code, said queens, most men alive today, ain't shit.

Reddit user Ilianthyss (desisted male) comments on the strategic use of medicalization, calling it "postmodern linguistic terrorism" to manipulate institutions and secure funding for treatments.
7 pointsMay 31, 2023
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If it were not medical, it would be difficult to get others in society to pay for it. It's medical or any other descriptor in whatever ways they want it to be, at any given moment. Postmodern linguistic terrorism. Common and useful definitions, meaning, these are tools of the capitalist, the white man, the oppressor. Make a mockery of it, use it against them to confuse and manipulate them and subvert their institutions like law, medical standards, and no longer expedient liberal conceptions of civil rights.

Ask yourself why something is being treated with hormonal drugs when it hasn't been characterized or diagnosed as a hormonal syndrome.

Reddit user Ilianthyss (desisted male) explains their personal history with autogynephilia (AGP), detailing cycles of gender dysphoria, cross-dressing, hormone experimentation, and the influence of fetishistic fantasies, ultimately leading them to stop medical transition after discovering the AGP framework.
4 pointsJun 10, 2023
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I wouldn't say I've ever fully transitioned. It's mostly come in waves, on and off. Something different in every season.

Teenager, TF/TG porn, transhumanism, obsessing over what a "female me" would be like, wanting to be her as much as fuck her. Later, trying to masc up and lift weights, something I have kept up on and off since though have never been able to get big. Lots of insecurity about being what was unrecognized hypogonadism. Always playing female characters in games. Straight though, at end of the day. Except for I dunno, those dildos I started buying. Knew all about prostate massage. Felt no guilt, but kept it all under wraps. Possible parents found my stuff. They were really terrified I might be gay. Always accusing me of it, angered by anything perceived as effeminate. Started calling me a twink, fairy, faggot. I remember eventually snapping at the dinner table one night, telling them so fucking what if I'm gay. I wasn't even sure that I was, myself.

College, trans was not a popular thing, but learned about it online, considered that this might be something that is up with me, elated that a "sex change" might be a real thing, started reading about what's actually done, decided, nah wait awhile, this is desperate stuff from the 60's. Played with thinking I might be gay, dressing in a few feminine items or just stuff that was nice and would get you called gay in the shit hole I was from, enjoyed trolling people with a bit of GNC looks or apparently habits every now and then. Hey, I like cooking, gay-seeming clothes, and erotica more than porn, must be something feminine about me. Couldn't get off with a girl without imagining I was one.

20's, stronger and stronger fantasies of being a female, to the point where I've really only got off on the idea of being male like... 20% of the time since then, lately, not at all. It is simply less fun. Dressing way more "gay" or GNC on occasion, flamboyant, colored contacts, dying my hair, one or two blatantly flamboyant clothing items which I told myself was straight PUA peacocking at first. Buying outright female clothing items, getting a hardon from wearing them stealth or not so stealth. Repeated attempts to masc up that ended every time in fucking myself with dildos, buying makeup (I told myself it was for public speaking, like a male politician, but those don't wear lipstick), Eventually, partially crossdressing in private as essentially a sex toy, started with breast forms and a bra. Various things to simulate a vagina. Asked gay friends if this is gay... no. WTF? I'd get this feeling starting as a teenager, basically really wanting to be fucked, up the ass which I imagined as a vagina (still do, though I've found ways to simulate a hole up front that trick my brain pretty well), to submit as a female. Awkward conversations with about half a dozen trans-identified people in these circles, two co-workers transitioned, one younger acquaintance started on estrogen. I told them about my "transformation fetish", and the TF/TG aspects. Gays could not relate to it. They liked men and being men. The transitioner I knew, who was really fucking clearly AGP looking back, was incredibly turned on by the entire thing, like creaming his pants when I described it. I was dressed what I thought was GNC at the time, taking it to a new level, and the whole thing actually freaked out some straight friends who were present and ended up going from libertarian to full 88 in one case. They were used to gays, like a quarter of that particular group was, but this was something different. There was also a friend was a butch lesbian who became FTM + militant feminist and started hating men, which included me. I had no problem using their male name and treating them as one of the guys. Tried to tone police me and call me a misogynist when I described some rando female commentator we both didn't like as an adjective that wasn't even female-specific. They started ranting about patriarchy on Facebook and ended up blocking all their male friends. Around this time I started playing with my hormones, noticed that when I felt like being fucked up the ass, I would feel this odd sensation of heat or burning around my prostate, thought maybe this was related to estrogen, eating soy (lately I get the same sensation from injecting HCG, something extracted from pregnant females but actually makes me AGP-horny as hell, really weird symbolism). Initially, I did herbal stuff, like lavender oil, drinking nothing but soy milk for months. It didn't produce the sensation. It was overall, a dual obsession with raising my "natty" testosterone , while also wondering if my cross-gender feels were due to estrogen exposure.

Going on 30, trans is exploding everywhere. What are these people feeling? Does it have anything to do with that stuff where I've always wanted to be a lesbian, or I'm sodomizing myself on my workout bench imaging being fucked by a male (technically an animal, most often) after doing squats while moaning like a whore? I start hanging out with trans people IRL and online, looking at dozens of videos of them, asking, "What are you? What am I?". I dropped all the furry stuff, which is heavily associated. Focus purely on the feminine aspect, the dildos, the "lesbian" stuff. I buy a couple female outfits to find my sizes. I put on full makeup, a wig, and I'm blown away. I just stare at her in the mirror for hours, feeling myself up, constantly practicing a female voice which I've gotten pretty good at. I start to drop hints I'm trans at work, wearing panties, subtle nude nail polish on one hand, wearing something pink or purple. I'm escalting more and more, imagining that I am transforming. I obtained estradiol (veterinary formulation, which also coded to me as "female animal") and progesterone (it's over the counter as a supplement, bioidentical to the human form though extracted from a yam). I'm playing with these for a couple months, low doses at first, nipples start getting really sensitive and puffy, but my libido is basically dead. I'm depressed and moody, getting ED, and not getting that heat in my prostate where I'm begging to be sodomized.

Then COVID hits. I have to start mascing up again. Shit's getting real. I find AGP nearly simultaneously. I just hear the literal definition read out, arousal at the thought or image of being a female and my jaw drops. Oh yeah, there's a name for it. Then I read about the other behavior patterns and feelings, that have to do with that. I start talking to self-aware AGP's, mostly on here. Plenty of time to obsess over that inside. I'm also playing with hormones thinking that many AGP's should still transition (I'm not opposed to it for an informed adult), more and more, crossdressing for a week at a time and thinking about coming out at work since it's even easier on cam. Overall the estrogen is making me feel like shit thought not really to an extreme, like just, really bored and not feeling horny very often. Didn't do any labs though. Speculating it could be "cycled" now, temporarily, for breast growth. Eventually I realize I'm hypogonadal, get it tested, possibly wrecking myself with the estrogens though it had been like 9 months since the most recent experiment and I wasn't sleeping well. I didn't exactly know what a "PCT" was then, though. Just doing the same old "natty" shit, supplements. Not enough anymore. I need something I can actually feel.

Since then I've been trying to hack my testosterone, and sense of sexual pleasure (what is it really, this thing that drives me to endless extremes, can it be maxed out, etc.), seeing how that really integrates with AGP. I've also tried to amplify my AGP as much as possible, like I'm making my own mind control tracks, creating these... increasingly elaborate fetishy simulations while on various combinations of psychoactives. It's almost like a kind of TOCD, where I'm wondering what it will take to crack my egg for good, but it's not really happening. I have another mental condition that makes it nearly impossible to feel pleasure genuinely, and probably immune to most forms of mind control. What do I have to do with detrans? Well, I'm no longer attempting to feminize myself hormonally. What I've experienced hormonally, physically, socially, doesn't go to the same level as most people here. If I'd been born 5 years later, yeah... I can't not see myself as connected to it though. I started encountering more and more about 3 years ago in sort of, alternative trans spaces I'd call it. I realized, this is about morphological freedom, which is being violated. There is more to learn by listening to the dissatisfied customers. People should, generally, be able to go any direction they like with their physical form.

Reddit user Ilianthyss (desisted male) comments on the derogatory use of the term "breeders" by comparing it to a known slur.
4 pointsJun 27, 2023
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I have certainly heard it used negatively, like in the same tone gay people used to say “breaders” to belittle and dismiss the behavior of heterosexuals

Or, in other words, exactly what I would call a slur. I hate gluten. Bread bread bread bread bread bread.

Reddit user Ilianthyss (desisted male) explains Autogynephilia as a powerful, delusional state comparable to schizophrenia that accounts for obnoxious behaviors, guilt, and a danger to self and others.
4 pointsJun 9, 2023
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Well it hits close to home in describing exactly what's going on with like 80% of them, accounts for their most obnoxious behaviors. No one likes being called out on how they work. It's a vulnerability. They're also often really guilty about it, people that have a strong conformist desire to be "normal" despite being objectively rather not normal in the way they think and feel. They would rather self-castrate than simply enjoy crossdressing maybe with others who are into the same thing.

My first time having normal heterosexual sex, with a pretty female human, with a condom, I was getting bored and felt like I could have fucked her for hours and hours. I required fantasies to get off. It's very powerful.

AGP should probably be classified however full blown schizophrenia is. It seems to involve a lack of agency, delusions come close to the level of outright visual hallucination (I've experienced this myself, I look way hotter to me in the mirror with makeup on than I should even to myself) and behaviors that are clearly danger to self and others. Like, I don't even identify as trans, and I've still managed to obsess over it and torment/alienate friends with my crossdressing photos for perhaps a bit of a masochistic/exhibitionist thrill.

Reddit user Ilianthyss (desisted male) explains Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT) as a potential alternative to DIY, providing resources and suggesting consultation for fertility restoration.
4 pointsJun 1, 2023
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There are clinics, that do female hormone therapy. Keyword is BHRT. I'd run things by one before considering DIY.

It's a niche, like TRT for women, not as well studied. These look like some good primers.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/15660-bioidentical-hormones

https://www.defymedical.com/blog/complete-guide-to-bhrt-for-women/

This pharmacy sheet has interesting details on what they probably use:

https://apothecaryoptions.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/BHRTdosingguideline.pdf

I think these types of clinics have more practical knowledge than anyone about how to manipulate sex hormones. Might also be able to restore cycles with Clomid or other fertility drugs, something I would ask about as an alternative to taking hormones potentially forever.

Reddit user Ilianthyss (desisted male) critiques the "extreme male brain" autism theory and its link to FTM transition, arguing for a more nuanced view of cognitive traits beyond sex stereotypes.
3 pointsJul 11, 2023
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The hypothesis that autism was an “extreme male brain”

Yeah I don't really buy it either. It seems more specific, cognitive deficits that don't seem like they're associated with either sex. I can see why it's easy for someone who isn't used to unpacking this stuff to believe that a girl with autism is really a guy inside and just needs to lean into that. They're emotionally blunted, for instance. Men are also this to a degree.

We are a sexually dimorphic species and I'm not going to pretend that there are no mental or emotional traits are skewed by sex, it's all conditioning and that people are endlessly malleable (not with current technology, anyway). The mind is not decoupled from the flesh. Our understanding and mastery of the flesh is limited. The blank slate is an example to me of a Big Lie, one of the bigger ones I was taught in the 90's that all of the boomers believed. I reject it.