Claire Abernathy was put on testosterone at 14, had a double mastectomy before she was in high school, and was fighting to have her medical transition reversed by 17. Now 21, she is detransitioning and urging lawmakers to help protect minors in the future from medical transitions, to enforce consequences on the medical industry, and to navigate care for detransitioners.
A growing number of detransitioners, or people who say they regret the medical steps they took to transition genders as adults or teenagers, are speaking out about their experiences amid a national debate over the wisdom of pediatric gender medicine. Some detransitioners have spoken out about their rushed treatment plans and mental health problems that did not resolve after taking hormones or undergoing surgeries. Lawmakers across the country are working to prevent such cases in the future, and more than two dozen states have passed laws banning gender transition drugs and surgeries for minors.
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“I strongly believe that there is action that can be taken,” Abernathy told the Washington Examiner. “We cannot allow this to be done to American children.”
Protecting children from permanent medical transition treatment
Currently, 23 states allow minors to receive gender transition surgeries, puberty blockers, or hormone therapy, according to the Human Rights Campaign. In Texas, where Abernathy received her treatment, lawmakers passed SB 14, banning medicalized transition for children. Abernathy told the Washington Examiner state bans only matter if they’re enforced.
“We’ve seen at least two lawsuits in the state of Texas regarding doctors violating SB 14, the medicalized transitioning ban for children, one of those being May Lau, who prescribed my testosterone,” Abernathy said. “That’s really where I think what it comes down to is enforcing that law, imposing penalties for when these laws are violated.”
Dr. May Lau had to surrender her Texas medical license and is currently being sued by state Attorney General Ken Paxton for “giving harmful, irreversible ‘gender transition’ drugs to Texas kids.”
Support for detransitioners
Paxton has also secured a $10 million settlement from Texas Children’s Hospital for billing Texas Medicaid for gender transitions. The settlement requires the hospital to create the nation’s first-ever “detransition clinic.” For the first five years, the detransition services will be free to patients and paid for by the hospital.
Even after detransitioning, Abernathy is left with a range of urological and gynecological issues. She feels doctors did not properly prepare her for the potential side effects of testosterone or complications from her surgery.
“I went to an ear, nose, and throat specialist, and he diagnosed me with partial vocal paralysis,” Abernathy said. “This is because my vocal cords are much larger than they’re supposed to be. That’s a side effect of testosterone. I also can’t project my voice or scream or speak for long periods of time without losing my voice.”
She suffered major complications during her double mastectomy, leading to her body rejecting her nipple grafts. Doctors also say she exhibits pelvic issues mirroring an elderly woman, or someone who’s suffered a catastrophic pelvic injury.
“There’s no accurate way to track or diagnose or treat detransitioners,” Abernathy said.
Lawmakers and doctors are only now starting to track detransitioners in the medical system, with new diagnostic codes meant to capture what Abernathy and others are going through. She says the Texas clinic won’t just treat patients, it will generate “an unprecedented level of research and understanding into this issue.”
Accountability and consequences for performing medical transitions on children
Abernathy believes the opening of the new detransitioner clinic in Texas is a great first step in helping fellow detransitioners and holding the medical field accountable.
“The opening of this detransition clinic came alongside the second-largest medical settlement in a lawsuit regarding a children’s hospital,” Abernathy said. “The medical body is going to have to reckon with the harm it has done. We are going to see the catastrophic effects that these drugs and these surgeries have on children, and it is going to incite an even bigger wave of lawsuits. This is just the beginning.”
The tide began to turn after Fox Varian was awarded $2 million in the first detransitioner malpractice lawsuit in the nation to go to trial and result in a win. The lawsuit, out of New York, was filed against a surgeon and psychologist for facilitating her double mastectomy when she was 16.
Abernathy cannot currently bring a lawsuit of her own. She began taking testosterone in 2018 and had her surgery a year later, when she was 14. In Texas, the statute of limitations is only two years. She hopes legislation, such as North Carolina’s HB 805 that extended the statute of limitations to 10 years, will allow her to one day hold her medical providers accountable.
“The Texas Supreme Court is considering an extension on the statute of limitations,” Abernathy said. “My colleague, Soren Aldaco, her lawsuit in Texas was the catalyst for this consideration. She is successfully currently suing her surgeon, but the doctor who put her on testosterone at 17 is currently not a subject of that lawsuit because it was outside the two-year statute of limitations, which is obviously too short.”
According to the Manhattan Institute, more than 7,000 girls under the age of 18 had their breasts amputated as part of a medical transition. A study out of the National Institutes of Health found the average time that detransitioners take to shed their transgender identity is five years, meaning most detransitioners would not meet a two-year rule.
DETRANSITIONER SPEAKS OUT ABOUT STRUGGLE TO REVERSE RUSHED TRANSGENDER TREATMENT
Abernathy’s roadmap for politicians is to protect children from irreversible decisions, enforce consequences when laws are broken, and not abandon the detransitioners now living with the results.
While Abernathy’s story is one of irreversible change, a fight for accountability may only just be starting.
