I Am a Detransitioner: Congress Needs to Safeguard Kids Like Me

The media has continually spotlighted the many children who are seeking to transition their genders.

But what about the increasing number of young adults who are detransitioning—those who regret the sex changes recommended by medical professionals when we were minors?

The young boys and girls who were misled and mistreated by the healthcare system we were urged to trust during our most impressionable and vulnerable years?

What about individuals like me?

These questions occupy my mind daily.

It has been eight years since I embarked on my transition—and four years since I began detransitioning.

I recognized my error at the age of 16.

I had started experimenting with gender change before I even became a teenager.

March 12 marks a poignant yet saddening day for individuals like myself.

We refer to it as “Detransition Awareness Day.”

For the first time, Congress is moving to introduce a resolution to recognize this day.

This week, Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw will propose a bill to safeguard children from being coerced into the troubling path of gender transitioning.

Crenshaw’s bill aligns closely with President Trump’s executive order prohibiting federal funding for any medical facility that offers sex-change treatments to minors.

While the president’s order is long overdue, it remains vulnerable to reversal by future administrations—currently, it’s paused due to ongoing federal lawsuits.

Daily, children continue to suffer.

The new House bill aims to protect them by legally cutting off much of the federal funding to children’s hospitals that promote sex-change procedures.

A significant number of US hospitals are involved in this medical and ethical crisis—54, according to the medical nonprofit Do No Harm.

Overall, these hospitals administered nearly 14,000 sex-change treatments to minors from 2019 to 2023.

Out of these, over 5,700 involved surgical procedures: penectomy, vaginoplasty, and mastectomies.

The children subjected to this trauma will find it challenging to lead normal lives.

I know this firsthand because I went through it.

When I commenced my transition, the medical professionals assured me I could always reverse my decision.

I trusted them as they prescribed me puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

However, I soon realized that those powerful, irreversible drugs were significantly altering my body.

Before long, I no longer recognized my own reflection.

I continued to trust the doctors when they recommended I undergo a double mastectomy.

I allowed them to remove my breasts.

Today, I bear physical reminders of that decision where they used to be.

Not merely scars, but open wounds.

If I ever bear children—and I’m uncertain about that possibility—I won’t be able to breastfeed. The doctors saw to that.

Moreover, once I expressed my regrets, those same doctors turned their backs on me.

By the time I realized my mistake and comprehended that the medical professionals didn’t truly care about my wellbeing, it was too late—the damage had been done.

What transpired to me must never happen again to another child—ever.

Yet every day, it does happen.

Children’s hospitals are devastating young lives in the name of radical transgender ideology.

They must be stopped.

These children require protection from this madness.

Their bodies must be saved.

Their minds must be safeguarded.

Believe me when I say that attempting to alter your sex can cause immense harm.

How could it not?

You’re trying to become someone you are not—something that supposed “experts” have dictated yet show little genuine understanding or care for you.

It’s no wonder numerous individuals are seeking to return to their previous selves.

I’ve engaged with hundreds who have detransitioned, most of whom are teenagers or young adults.

If they had waited a few extra years, they would likely never have considered a sex change.

However, they were rushed along by individuals who should have exercised better judgment.

On March 12, we urge Congress to enact legislation that protects children from experiencing the pain we have endured. It’s crucial to eliminate any taxpayer funding directed toward children’s hospitals that perform sex changes on minors.

Additionally, the Department of Justice needs to take action on the president’s directive to investigate whether doctors are misleading children about the implications of sex-change medications, as I was misled.

Detransitioners like me are not fading away; in fact, our numbers are growing as more children endure mistreatment.

We will continue to amplify our voices until Congress ensures permanent protection for America’s children from the harm that was inflicted upon us.

Chloe Cole is the patient advocate at Do No Harm.