This story is from the comments listed below, summarised by AI.
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 a bad-faith actor.
The user demonstrates:
- Personal, nuanced reflection on their own history with gender identity, detransition, and political beliefs.
- Consistent, evolving viewpoints that show genuine internal conflict and intellectual engagement with the topic.
- Emotional depth and self-awareness, including admitting to past mistakes and changing their mind.
- Specific, personal anecdotes about their age, watching specific YouTubesrs over time, and conversations with their mother and psychiatrist.
The passion and criticism present are consistent with a genuine detransitioner's perspective and do not indicate inauthenticity.
About me
I started questioning my gender at 25, believing I was a trans man for two years. After a supportive conversation with my mom, I had a sudden, clear realization that I didn't actually want to medically transition. I later read the Cass Review, which shattered my trust in the pro-trans narratives I had believed and confirmed my decision. I now see I had mistaken my discomfort with puberty and societal roles for being trans. I am much happier now, having socially detransitioned and found peace with my female body.
My detransition story
My whole journey with this started when I was about 25. I was really struggling and I think I mistook my unhappiness with my life and my body for being trans. For two years, I thought of myself as a trans man and told my friends. I became so sure this was the path I wanted that I finally came out to my psychiatrist and then my mom. My psychiatrist was very affirmative, and my mom was unexpectedly super supportive and empathetic. We talked a lot about my fears for my professional life, and she assured me it wasn't as big a deal as I thought.
But right after that conversation with my mom, something shifted in me. I started to feel like I was misgendering myself when I used male grammar in my language. I realized that nothing was actually stopping me from transitioning, but I just didn't want to anymore. It was a really sudden and clear feeling.
Around that same time, the Cass Review dropped, and it completely shattered my trust in the pro-trans narratives I had believed. Reading that systematic review showed me the evidence for things like puberty blockers was almost nonexistent. It showed that it’s not true that the vast majority of trans youth will remain trans, and that kids were being rushed into transition. It made me see that if you're just questioning your gender and aren't sure, transition isn't the only or inevitable solution.
Looking back, I think a lot of my feelings were related to autism and just general discomfort with puberty and the roles society expected of me as a woman. I hated my breasts and had a lot of anxiety and low self-esteem. I now believe I mistook gender for gender roles. I thought that to have "masculine" hobbies or wear male clothes, I needed to be a man. But that's not true at all. You can have any hobby or wear any clothes you want; no medical transition is needed for that.
I was also heavily influenced online by leftist YouTubers like Contrapoints and PhilosophyTube. I used to watch James Stephanie Sterling a lot since 2018, but her videos became more and more about being trans and neurodivergent in a way that felt performative and without real substance. I think my autistic mind just wanted clearer, less artistic content, and I couldn't enjoy it anymore. This online environment definitely shaped my thinking.
I don't regret exploring my gender because it led me to where I am now, which is a place of much more clarity. But I do regret almost going down a medical path that would have permanently changed my body for reasons that weren't right for me. I'm much happier now that I've stepped back from that and from being super online and into politics. I’ve found that focusing on other hobbies and interests, like good journalism and learning new things, has made my life fuller. Life is so much bigger than just gender.
I never took hormones or had any surgeries, so I didn't have to deal with serious health complications or infertility. I only transitioned socially with friends, and now I've detransitioned socially. My main takeaway now is that we're born with the bodies we have, and we have to find ways to cope with that. Transition is one radical, tough way to cope, but if it doesn't work for you, there are other ways to deal with those feelings, like therapy that isn't just affirming but actually exploratory.
Here is a timeline of my journey:
Age | Event |
---|---|
25 | Started to think of myself as a trans man and came out to friends. |
27 | Came out to my psychiatrist and my mom. Had a supportive conversation with my mom and immediately realized I didn't want to transition. |
27 | The Cass Review was published, which confirmed my decision to detransition socially. |
Top Comments by /u/dieKreatur:
Indeed it is, they don’t care about actual people. They don’t care if you are hurt, they only care about imaginary safety for others. When I had this realisation (on entirely different topic) I cried for few days, because I felt like person who always be 2nd class and doesn’t deserve to be respected, cared for and so on. But all you need to do is to find people who aren’t indoctrinated into rigid thinking about progressive values - these exist, normies are nice.
Tl;dr it’s systematic review of evidence on care trans youth receive in UK, commissioned by UK government. Evidence for puberty blockers protocols are almost nonexistent, in state of current evidence it’s not true that vast majority of trans youth will remain trans, children are kinda rushed to transition in UK, number of trans youth quickly increased over last decade. Overall it puts gender affirming care in question.
I suggest checking out coverage by Jesse Singal, who is very good at topic of trans youth and very truthful to science.
https://thedispatch.com/article/the-cass-review-wont-go-away/
https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/michael-hobbes-is-spectacularly-wrong
https://reason.com/podcast/2024/05/02/jesse-singal-should-kids-medically-transition/
Omg that’s so sad :/ it’s great that you feel better with yourself and your body - and that’s the ultimate goal of transition, isn’t it?
Arguments to push back: 1 Cis people experience unhappiness with their bodies and with their lives too and can fix that by improving style, not everyone with body issues is trans 2 trans people existed before modern medicine, didn’t take hormones and lived their lives, so clearly hormones aren’t the only solution
Also leftist youtubers. Contrapoints, PhilosophyTube and James Stephanie Sterling come to my mind.
I’m somewhat worried about Stephanie Sterling. I used to watch her frequently since 2018 and her videos became… more personal, more political (yes I know Sterling always was political, it wasn’t just video games journalism), more self-deprecating (not in a goofie way it how it started), more about trans stuff. Sterling is now that disabled/neurodivergent/trans person who can’t shut up about it. And I want to be happy for her, but also can’t enjoy her videos anymore.
Maybe „Mum, I remember what you said, that you want me to be 100% sure about transition, because you don’t want to go through it twice. But hear me out. I know you love me and you were super supportive of my transition, because you wanted me to be happy. And the thing is, I’m not happy anymore. I was 100% sure back then, but after 10 years I changed my mind”
It’s well founded, very rational fear! How to fix this: well honestly search for resources how to keep relationships with toxic family members. Some individual relationships can be saved with your hard work, in other cases you will discover that people actually don’t think what you expect them to think, some relationships will go nasty.
I thought of myself as trans man for 2 years, but only friends knew. Then I became sure that this path I really want and came out to my psychiatrist, then my mom. Psychiatrist were affirmative, my mom was unexpectedly very supportive and empathetic. We talked about my fears about profesional life and my mom assured me it’s not that big of a deal as I thought. After conversation with mom I started feeling like I’m misgendering myself when I use male grammar (I don’t live in English-speaking county). I realized nothing stops me from transitioning, but I don’t want to. Then Cass Review dropped and it shattered my trust in pro-trans narratives. Yeah if I just question my gender and aren’t sure it absolutely doesn’t mean that transition is inevitable or the only solution.
Ask yourself 1) what do you want to accomplish with transition 2) is is physically possible 3) would that result solve your specific problems (not vague „gender dysphoria”, but the thing with which you actually struggle) 4) is it any other way to solve these problem that very aggressive medical intervention destroying your body in the long term (for example you will get vaginal atrophy)
I hope so too. Check out this: https://substack.com/@checkthefacts?r=1kbm9v&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=profile Turns out that Michael Hobbes and his cohost of Maintenance Phase spread rampant disinformation about obesity, health impacts of obesity, ability to lose weight and related health topics. I’m very angry that I fell for this and used to sent them money on patreon.
you know, at first I was offended that you assumed I’m teenager or something as I’m almost 29, but… yeah, I guess I’m not really mature if I had assumption that my side is correct by default until proven otherwise. The hard thing for me tho is not questioning beliefs/sources, but questioning entire paradigm