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 inauthentic. The comments show:
- A consistent, deeply personal, and evolving narrative about the user's struggle with gender dysphoria, transition, and detransition.
- Complex, nuanced, and sometimes contradictory thoughts that reflect a genuine internal process (e.g., grappling with religion, masculinity, and identity over a multi-year span).
- A passionate and personal investment in the topic, including pushback against both transgender and traditional masculine narratives, which aligns with the stated experiences of many detransitioners.
The account exhibits the hallmarks of a real person sharing their lived experience.
About me
My journey started at 16 when online communities convinced me I could escape being male by becoming a woman. I took hormones for three years, but it only led me to a terrible low point. Finding spirituality and better friends helped me see my masculinity wasn't a defect. I now accept myself as a man and believe medical transition was damaging. Embracing my natural self was a long fight, but I've found peace in who I was born to be.
My detransition story
My whole journey with gender started when I was a teenager. I was around 16 and I fell deep into online communities that sold me the idea that I could be a woman. I remember feeling a powerful grief that I wasn't born female; it consumed all my thoughts. I truly believed that being born male was a kind of death sentence. For about three years, from 16 to 19, I fully identified as trans and pursued a medical transition. I took hormones.
But it didn't give me the peace I was looking for. I started to realize that transitioning wasn't actually getting me any closer to being a woman. I got the horrible impression that I wasn't even going to live past 30 if I continued down that path. I hit a real low point.
What really helped me turn things around was a change in my perspective, which came through spirituality and religion. I started to believe in God, and that changed what I wanted to do and how I saw myself. It helped me get to grips with my gender dysphoria. I began to see that my masculinity wasn't a defect. I made better friends, too—friends who didn't just affirm that my body was wrong because I hated it. They listened to me and supported me in a different way.
Now, looking back, I see my trans life as a bill of goods I was sold. I've come to see gender and sex as basically the same thing. The only difference is "gender identity," which I think of as just someone's perception of themselves as a man or a woman. I accept that women have a life that is inaccessible to me as a man, and vice versa. We're different in our biology, our brains, our experiences, and how we're raised. That's just a part of being human.
I don't regret my transition because it led me to where I am now, but I do see the medical interventions as damaging. I believe our sexuality and fertility are things given to us, and medically unnecessary procedures that sterilize you damage the dignity of a person. Embracing my natural masculinity after detransition was a painstaking process, but I've done it completely. I fought for years against the need to prove my maleness, and now I know that by virtue of my birth, I'm just as much a man as any other.
For anyone going through something similar, I'd say not to be in a rush to label yourself. Give it time. And for families, understand that detransitioning doesn't mean you just go "back to normal" right away. The feelings of being foreign in your own body can stick with you.
Here is a timeline of my journey:
| Age | Event |
|---|---|
| 16 | Started identifying as transgender and was influenced by online communities. |
| 16-19 | Took hormones as part of medical transition. |
| 19 | Realized transition wasn't working and began to detransition. Found new friends and spirituality. |
| Post-19 | Fully embraced my identity as a male and accepted my natural masculinity. |
Top Comments by /u/sethn61:
Realizing transitioning wasn't getting me any closer to womanhood and getting the impression I wasn't going to live past 30 :/
Made better friends who didn't affirm that my body was wrong just because I hated it, listened to alternative thought, spirituality, religion, started to believe in God, finally started to see my masculinity wasn't a defect.
That's a cathartic summary of my experience.
I remember feeling the very real grief at not being born female and how much I would give just to be a woman, it consumed all my thoughts.
So by all rights I think I was trans, and I believe when TRAs say we were never trans it's because our first-hand experiences challenge the popular narrative and for that reason they need to be invalidated.
I've gotten a couple of accusations that I did it for my religion and that's only true in an indirect sense, it changed what I wanted to do and my perception of myself to a point where I could get to grips with my gender dysphoria and helped me realize that being born male wasn't a death sentence.
- When I say Masculinity, I mean the essense of what it is to be a man, not the stereotypes about mens' interests and behaviour.
- Is a Theology question, the reason we're broken is from Original sin, the same reason we die and have any diseases in the first place. We aren't given mental disorders by God, we inherit broken human bodies from our parents. Something he does give us is our sexuality and fertility, both of which are mutilated and sterilized through medically unnecessary processes through hormonal and surgical intervention, It damages the dignity of the human person.
I embraced my natural masculinity completely after detransition.I've come to see gender and sex as interchangeable with the exception of 'gender identity' which I regard as someone's perception of themselves as a man or woman.
I haven't identified with the opposite sex at all post-detransition, I accept that women have a life that is inaccessible to me as a man and the same in reverse; differences in biology, neurology, experience, and socialisation. It's one of those interesting dualities of being human.
The trans life was a bill of goods I was sold online when I was in my late teens (16-19), and since recovering from that I've been very skeptical of others' views of what makes up masculinity, expressly because my own masculinity as a male was something that I fought against for years, and only came to accept painstakingly. Views such as 'become more muscular or you're less of a man, play sports, don't play video games, get the same 5 variants of short-back-and-sides haircut, take a bad job just for the money, get the highest marks at uni or you're worthless', be competitive for the sake of being competitive. I've fought against the need to prove my own maleness beyond the fact that by virtue of my birth I'll always be just as much a man as any other boy.
I don't find the word 'cis' to be particularly helpful as an alternative to 'trans', so I don't use it, but under the definition I would be considered a 'cis male', as an answer your question.
I wouldn't recommend labelling yourself as anything right now, not even gnc. Just give it time, if you want a new name that's alright too.
Your family needs to understand that detransitioning doesn't mean you go "back to normal" immediately because your experiences of feeling foreign in your own body still stick with you.