This story is from the comments listed below, summarised by AI.
Authenticity Assessment: Not Suspicious
Based on the comments provided, the account appears authentic. There are no serious red flags suggesting it is a bot or inauthentic. The user expresses a consistent, passionate, and personal viewpoint that aligns with a desister's perspective, including references to their own experience with considering HRT and their ideological journey. The language is natural, complex, and contains personal reflections that are not typical of automated scripts.
About me
I started looking into transition as a practical teenager who valued evidence over faith. I saw it as an experiment to improve my life, influenced by online communities, but I was always critical of gender ideology. I took hormones for a while but stopped when I realized it wasn't making me a more functional person. My detransition wasn't emotional because my belief was never deeply held. I now see it was a mistake to think I could solve my problems by changing my sex, and I'm focused on navigating life as the female I am.
My detransition story
My journey with gender started when I was a teenager. I was never raised religious, and I became an atheist around age 12. This made me value truth and evidence above all else. Looking back, I think this is a big part of why my story is different from others.
I never really felt like I was "born in the wrong body." My thinking was more practical, almost like an experiment. I saw transitioning as a way to potentially improve my life, a kind of "transmaxxing" strategy. I was influenced a lot by online communities that presented it this way, not so much by friends or leftist ideology. I was critical of that ideology from the start; to me, a lot of it felt like a new religion with its own unproven dogmas. I saw a lot of inconsistencies in gender theory that just didn't make logical sense to me.
I believed then, and still do, that you are born a biological sex, male or female. "Gender" is just what sex people assume you are. The idea of being "non-binary" always struck me as a political statement, not a biological reality. I think some people transition because they have a fetish (what's called autogynephilia or AGP), or because they are trying to escape from other problems in their life, like depression or low self-esteem. For them, it's a form of escapism. I think 40 years ago, these same people might have joined a suicide cult; they are looking for an extreme solution to their pain.
I took hormones for a while. I didn't have any serious health complications from them, and I never had surgery. I'm grateful for that now. My detransition wasn't a dramatic, emotional event. Because my belief in being trans was never rooted in a deep internal feeling or faith, it was easier to walk away when I realized it wasn't working or making my life better. I had nothing socially tying me to that identity.
I don't have regrets in a big, emotional way, but I do see the entire process as a mistake. I think transitioning made me a less functional version of myself. I shot myself in the foot by believing I could solve my problems by changing my sex, when in reality, I just had a poor understanding of life's challenges. I benefited from stepping back and thinking critically instead of just following a trend.
I now believe that people, including animals, are always trying to be the most attractive and socially successful versions of themselves. We can't just remove natural hierarchies. The goal should be to navigate life in a way that is the least harmful to ourselves and others, not to try and fundamentally change who we are biologically.
| Age | Event |
|---|---|
| 12 | Stopped believing in religion, became an atheist. Began to strongly value evidence over faith. |
| (Various Teenage Years) | Researched transition online, influenced by "transmaxxing" ideas rather than identity politics. |
| 19 | Started taking testosterone. |
| 20 | Stopped taking testosterone. Realized it was a practical mistake, not a solution to life's problems. |
Top Comments by /u/Professional_Move203:
This type of question is how you realize the inconsistencies of gender ideology. Sometimes it just doesn't make sense and you can't make sense out of it.
Yeah, it feels a lot like religious thinking. Ive come to understand by listening a lot to James Lindsey and Nina Paley among others that leftism really is a replacement for religion. All the reasoning is circular, and often impossible. Any perception of reality is ideological, and they even state this themselves.
- "Critical theory" and other social pseudoscience that is specifically out to prove social inequalities and are basically ideology masquerading as science, still count as science in many academic institutions. I think its basically only a few countries like Norway that actually dont fund it by principle anymore.
- You are asking the wrong question. The real question is: does transition help people with gender dysphoria?
- Theres also a lot of people that transition that either have a AGP fetish, or are just trying to escape their current situation, and would join a suicide cult 40 years ago if they came upon "children of god" etc.
If you don't have a certain starting off point, FtM transition is very thankless and unforgiving.
Thoughts?
I really liked reading "12 rules for life" and its analysis of human dominance structures, it makes much more sense than the more "lysenkoist" idea that all hierarchies are evil and can just be removed. People and animals will always try to be the most attractive and socially appreciated they can be, have good control in their flock or with their neighbhours. We shouldnt shy away from it, but find ways to do it that is the least harmful to others and ourselves.
What trans does as I see it, is making a man a less attractive and less functional woman, and vice versa with women- you basically shoot yourself in the foot just because you had a poor understanding of the plight of the opposite gender and their actual problems, or was fooled by a doctor and leftist in your friend group that you would be so damn awesome as trans.
If you're not of a particular gender, why would you be comfortable with your birth gender?
But you arent birthed into a gender, you are birthed as a sex. Your gender is pretty much what sex people assume you are. So basically you would want to be non identifiable.
Now you could argue some people wouldnt want to have a specific sex, or "customize" their own sex, but I find it highly unlikely that this is a healthy functioning human being.
You could argue trans people have a birth defect making them lean more towards the other sex biologically, and pushing them towards that will increase their life quality(although I dont believe that as all evidence leans the other direction), but that someone is born in the middle? There are two biological genders, and our species dont really have a "healthy" state in the middle.
Non-binary as a concept really screams "political" in the way "queer" does. Homosexuals have a legit sexuality that seems to occur around 5-10% of births in any culture, we just dont see the same patterns with trans- people transition to the rate their classmates do.
This is the least toxic trans related reddit I've been in, although it can be sometimes too.
Reddit can be very useful for practical things, but discussing anything touched by leftist ideology/critical theory/postmodernism, can easily get you banned for even asking about something already decided by the dogma.
This sub already goes against the dogma, detrans peoples very existence does as well. As the evidence for "transness" doesent really exist, the movement itself is entirely religious in nature. Religions rely on faith, not proof, so questioning the dogma is basically leaving the religion or reducing faith.
It was pretty much the reason I stopped being leftist at a younger age. I realized I was atheist at 12 years of age simply due to my parents never teaching me to be religious. It was scary as hell, but I embraced it for being true, and truth being more important.
My ideas around HRT was much more of a "transmaxxx" thing than a leftist move, so it was much easier to desist, I had nothing socially rooting me in becoming trans.