This story is from the comments by /u/QueenlyFlux that are listed below, summarised with AI.
User Authenticity Assessment: Not Suspicious
Based on the provided comments, this account appears to be authentic.
There are no serious red flags suggesting it is a bot or an inauthentic actor. The user's story is highly detailed, internally consistent, and spans a long period, describing a complex personal journey of transition, detransition, self-discovery, and the management of comorbid conditions like ADHD. The language is nuanced, emotionally varied (ranging from supportive to angry), and reflects the deep personal investment and passion typical of someone who has lived this experience.
About me
I started transitioning at 19 because I was depressed and felt like a weirdo loner, and I thought becoming a woman would fix everything. I was prescribed hormones almost immediately, but instead of helping, it made me miserable and became the source of my dysphoria. I quit after three years, got diagnosed with ADHD, and started treatment that actually helped the root of my problems. I stopped focusing on my appearance and started weightlifting, which made me appreciate my body for its strength. Now, I'm a happy 25-year-old man, and my life is so much simpler and easier without the burden of gender.
My detransition story
My whole journey with transition started because I felt completely lost and out of place. I was a young man, 19 years old, and I had always struggled with feeling different. I was depressed, anxious, and had very low self-esteem. I now know a huge part of this was because I had undiagnosed ADHD, which made me feel like a weirdo loner and affected my social skills and relationships. I felt worthless and alone, and I was looking for any explanation for why I felt so bad.
I found that explanation online in transgender communities. I became convinced that all my suffering was because I was born in the wrong body and that I was actually a woman trapped inside. I believed all the promises I read: that hormones weren't dangerous, that I would be able to pass if I started right away, and that my parents were just bigots for not embracing my sudden change. I thought transition would complete me and finally allow me to live peacefully. I also had a lot of internalised issues about being a sensitive, effeminate bisexual man; I hated the negative stereotypes of men as being ugly, mean, and violent, and I thought becoming a woman would allow me to be loved instead of feared.
I told my university doctor I thought I was trans, based purely on what I’d read online. She referred me to a specialist who prescribed me hormones after just two visits. There was no real psychological evaluation or exploration of my other mental health issues. I was on HRT for three years.
During that time, my life didn't get better; it got much worse. Instead of helping my dysphoria, transitioning became the source of it. I was constantly preoccupied with my appearance, my voice, whether I was passing, and who I was out to. It was completely overwhelming and made me miserable. I was constantly fatigued and depressed on hormones. I also came to realise that a lot of my initial feelings were influenced by a porn problem and autogynephilic (AGP) fantasies that I had developed, which made me think I wanted to be a woman.
I reached a point where I couldn't deny it anymore: transitioning was making me completely miserable. I was so sick of all the gender nonsense that I would have rather lived as a man than keep it up. I threw my hormones away, ghosted my doctors, and just stopped. That was about three and a half years ago.
Detransitioning was hard at first. Immediately after quitting HRT, my libido skyrocketed and I went through a few months of feeling excessively horny and aggressive. My emotions were all over the place. But after that initial rebound period, things started to stabilize. I got diagnosed with ADHD and started medication, which helped me more than anything else ever had. It addressed the actual root of my executive function problems and social difficulties.
I took the advice of a detransitioned woman who told me to stop focusing on what my body looks like and instead focus on what it can do. I took up weightlifting, which gave me a huge confidence boost and made me appreciate my body for its strength and capability. I filled my life with meaningful activities like travel, art, and reconnecting with friends. The less I thought about gender, the more my dysphoria disappeared.
I’ve come to see that what I thought was gender dysphoria wasn’t a feeling in itself, but an interpretation of other feelings—shame, low self-esteem, social anxiety, and escapist fantasy—through the lens of transgender ideology. Now that I don't think that way anymore, those feelings have largely gone away. I can appreciate my male body now; I like being tall, being able to put on muscle, and I even like having a penis sometimes. My sexuality settled down too; I realised I'm bisexual, but these days I think I prefer women.
I do have regrets. I regret wasting three years of my life, especially my college years, on something that caused me so much pain and made my problems worse. I regret that it was so easy for me to get hormones without anyone ever challenging me or looking into my underlying mental health. I feel like I was failed by the medical system, online communities, and a culture that normalises this path for vulnerable young people.
But I don't regret detransitioning for a second. My life is so much easier and happier now. I don't have to worry about mimicking the opposite sex all the time. I can just exist. I'm more comfortable with my masculinity every day, and everything is simpler without the burden of gender. My world is much bigger now that I'm not constantly preoccupied with myself.
| Age | Event |
|---|---|
| 19 | Started identifying as transgender and began taking HRT. |
| 22 | Stopped HRT and detransitioned. |
| 22 | Was diagnosed with ADHD and began treatment, which helped immensely. |
| 25 | (Present) Feeling healthy, confident, and happy living as a man. |
Top Reddit Comments by /u/QueenlyFlux:
Jazz is a victim of Munchausen by proxy. The mother seems to thrive on the attention from having a "trans kid" with all the attendant drama, and the doctors are always eager to experiment with unapproved puberty blockers and sketchy surgeries. The whole situation is sad and grotesque -- perfect material for The Learning Channel.
If you look past the hyperbole, it looks like they're mostly worried this will make it harder for minors to obtain hormones. I think most people on this subreddit would agree, that would be a good thing. Waiting sucks, but tbh I don't think young people have the maturity to make that kind of decision. Hell, I transitioned at 19, and I definitely wasn't ready for any kind of life-altering choices about my body. It was far too easy for me to get hormones. Nobody challenged me, or did even the most cursory investigation into my underlying mental health conditions. Felt more like cheerleaders than doctors. The medical community owes it to these kids to be more thorough.
Now for the rest of my transition: did it make me happy? It made my life significantly more difficult. I am stealth ( meaning that you keep your past hidden from others ) and I am terrified that people will find out and discover my past. I still have gender dysphoria. I feel like I live in a male body that was molded to look like a female body. My body doesn’t feel like a genuine female body. Finding a partner is almost impossible as a trans woman, even in my case and I pass well as a female. Even if you find a partner, you always feel inadequate because you put them through a lot more struggle than they should have to go through, by being with a trans person. My story is fairly typical for the average MtF. Most keep all kinds of unresolved psychiatric problems, the distress always stays present and there is a general unhappiness in the community.
I wish I could show this to every young man considering going down this path.
I would request you keep things mostly open to different viewpoints. Please, continue removing hateful, vitriolic posts. But one of the reasons I feel good about this space is that I don't have to worry about being cast out for saying something potentially controversial.
I think we should let trans people share with their experiences, but it's important to keep things on topic, and disallow anyone trying to persuade people not to detransition. That's not the point of this subreddit. Trans people should respect our desire not to be proselytized if they want to participate.
In general, I think the rules and the moderation has worked well so far. This is one of the few places on the internet where I feel like I can be myself. So thanks, moderators, I appreciate your hard work!
I think I was as "truly trans" as anyone could have been. I've come to view gender dysphoria not as a feeling in and of itself, but as an interpretation of a feeling. I felt like shit, and I interpreted it through the lens of transgenderism, and it felt like gender dysphoria. I thought transition would make me feel better, so I must have been a dysphoric transwoman.
Now I see it through the lens of ADHD. When I feel like shit, I take an adderall. It certainly does a better job than transgenderism ever did.
Yes, I feel the exact same way!
I also think that the liberating feeling about not having to stress so much about passing as a convincing member of the opposite sex massively reduces dysphoria.
To anyone reading this who is contemplating detransition, this right here is the best reason. My life is so much easier now that I don't worry about mimicking the opposite sex all the time.
Its heartbreaking. I feel like I'm surrounded by a vast cult of child abuse and medicalized self-harm that's brainwashing youth who are LGB, mentally ill, traumatized, or just insecure. And everyone who speaks out is labeled a bigot! More and more, I feel like I have to do something to stop this madness. If I could save even one kid, it would be worth losing everything.
Whatever I was feeling was enough for my doctors (including a highly-regarded trans medicine specialist) to diagnose me with GD. But funny enough, my "symptoms" went away once I stopped ruminating about my gender identity all day and dropped the "transition or die" mindset.
Later on, I was diagnosed with ADHD. Apparently, it's quite a common comorbidity with a GD diagnosis in young people, just like with autism. Both disorders can involve persistent fixations and black-and-white thinking.
>I like who I am, I’m the guy I always wanted to be, but I will say I don’t really feel happy all the time and my sexuality is making me very uncomfortable.
This is very normal. Reading your post, it sounds like you are a confused young man who is maybe bisexual and watched too much porn. That was me 5 years ago, I'll save you a long story and just say that transitioning made everything worse. I'll tell you what's helped me: quitting porn, working out, focusing on improving my confidence and self-esteem, and getting help for my mental illness.
There is no reason you need to identify as anything. You are who you are. Don't let people pressure you in your confused state into making permanent changes to your body.
I also transitioned due to social isolation and feeling inadequate as a boy. I detransitioned 3.5 years ago. It was very hard at first, but I'm happy to say I'm now living life as a man I can be proud of. Please don't hesitate to reach out here for support.