I was put on testosterone at 14 after doctors told my distress meant I needed medical transition, and it changed my life forever. This piece walks through what I lost physically and emotionally, the medical choices that were never questioned, and why the current approach to pediatric gender care needs far more caution. I write as someone who regrets the permanent changes and wants other families to see the real risks. What follows is my experience and the questions it raises for a system that too often moves fast and assumes the right answer.
I was physically healthy as a teenager, but I was carrying deep trauma from sexual abuse that made my body feel hostile. Instead of treating the trauma, clinicians treated the symptom they labeled as gender distress and moved me toward hormones. No meaningful exploration of alternatives happened and no one paused to consider whether adolescence, grief, or abuse was driving my pain.
WOMAN WHO LIVED AS MAN SAYS SHE GRIEVED ‘UNWANTED BODY PARTS’ AFTER TRANSITION The decision to start testosterone came a week after my 14th birthday. Eight months later I had a double mastectomy, and my life was rewritten in a handful of appointments and signatures.
Today at 21, I live with daily consequences from those choices made when I was a child. I suffer severe urological problems that cause intense pain when my bladder fills, sometimes leading to bleeding or complete loss of control. There have been stretches when I had to wear adult diapers because testosterone damaged my pelvic floor and urinary system.
YOUNG MOTHER FACING PERMANENT HEALTH PROBLEMS AFTER GENDER TRANSITION WARNS SHE WAS SOLD A ‘LIE’ Vaginal atrophy is a reality many clinicians downplay, and routine gynecological exams leave me injured and bleeding. Penetration can cause tearing, and countless women who detransition or remain transitioned live with these hidden harms while doctors often lack a clear plan to help.
Testosterone also enlarged my clitoris to the point of constant chafing and pain that has not gone away five years after stopping the drug. I arrange my clothes and my movements to avoid agony, and the only remaining option is an invasive corrective surgery that risks losing sexual sensation entirely. That procedure is presented as medicine, but it can take away what nobody asked to remove.
PRISHA MOSELY: AS A DETRANSITIONER AND MOM, I KNOW WHAT GENDER IDEOLOGY STOLE FROM ME My voice suffered permanent damage that I still live with every day. Before transition I sang, acted, and connected to people through performance; testosterone stole my ability to project and scream without pain. Now speaking for long periods strains my throat and leaves me weak, and those physical changes come with real fear about being unable to call for help when I need it.
At 14, surgeons removed my healthy breasts in a drains-free mastectomy that increased the risk of nipple graft problems. Parts of my chest tissue necrotized, leaving open wounds and permanent nerve damage. I was too young to vote or make many adult decisions, yet I was deemed capable of consenting to irreversible surgery that took away the possibility of breastfeeding future children.
No medical professional sufficiently investigated why I began rejecting my body after abuse, and three clinicians signed off on my transition despite my disclosures. The standard of care that justified this path treated my psychological distress with endocrine disruption and surgery instead of thorough therapy. That approach raises the ugly question of whether ideology, rather than careful medicine, steered my care.
CHILDREN’S NATIONAL HOSPITAL IN DC TO END GENDER TRANSITION MEDICAL INTERVENTIONS The pediatric gender model in many places values affirmation over caution and moves children quickly toward hormones and surgery. There is a lack of long-term safety data, no robust tracking of detransitioners, and scant safeguards to ensure vulnerable kids get rigorous psychological assessment before life-altering treatments.
As more of us age and recognize the harm, we also find very few clinicians who know how to help rebuild what was taken. I cannot restore my original voice or undo the damage to my body, and that reality is crushing. I share this so families and doctors step back and demand caution before subjecting young people to irreversible medical interventions.
