Laura Dodsworth’s detransitioners article 3rd most read from The Times in 2020

[NotBadConsidering]

The article was titled “The detransitioners: what happens when trans men want to be women again?” Only an article about cheating and an article outlining how Boris completely fucked up with coronavirus were read more.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/4562fd9e-4142-11eb-a0e7-d2b8bc0d7416?shareToken=61528334a92c37f97e8db08e7fee8b47

And the article itself for those who missed it the first time round:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/25f95e06-bf8f-11ea-9ea2-5a548b3aebca?shareToken=fa46610c4a2f34a0dc4106c13a822db3

Good to see this article on the most read list. I feel so, so sad for these girls and women and still can't understand how this has happened - psychiatrists "diagnosing" young women and girls as trans, in many cases at the first appointment.

"A few painful and difficult things have happened to me that I think were behind me wanting to be a man and not be a woman. I know I was not in the wrong, but they are things I can’t talk about publicly. What I know now is that transitioning wasn’t the way to deal with those things. You go to the gender clinic and within a couple of months you’re on testosterone. The psychiatrist said I was trans. I thought if they prescribed me testosterone then I must be trans. Aside from general questions, no one explored if there were other issues or challenged me.

I’ve tried to talk about background issues with therapists, but gender dysphoria was seen as the cause of my problems and not a symptom of them. Actually I think my gender issues came out of mental health issues, not the other way around."

"I wish the psychiatrist at the gender identity clinic [in the UK] had given me a better assessment. Part of me wants to go back to the clinic to look my psychiatrist in the face again, but I know that’s driven by anger. I don’t think they can help me, so there is no point in going back."

How many women have had this experience?
It seems that no lessons were learned from the Russell Reid court case.
www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/may/25/health.society

That is great to read. I am going to leave this link here. OldCrone posted the link last night and it works well with this article.

archive.vn/G3WXC

There is a common assumption that extensive psychotherapy precedes hormone treatment, but that doesn't seem to be the case from these women's experiences. The speed at which they were treated with testosterone is frightening.

Sinead: "You go to the gender clinic and within a couple of months you’re on testosterone. The psychiatrist said I was trans. I thought if they prescribed me testosterone then I must be trans. Aside from general questions, no one explored if there were other issues or challenged me."

Ellie: "[The doctor] said why wait till 18, when I would have better results if I started taking testosterone straight away? He said that the effects of taking testosterone were reversible and there was nothing to worry about, which shocked me because I knew this wasn’t always true."

Lee: "One morning when I was 44 I saw a female-to-male transgender person on television. I’d never seen one before. I thought: “That could be me.” It seemed like it might be the answer. I went to see a gender doctor privately in London. On the first appointment he said, “Let’s not waste any more time,” and injected me with testosterone."

Just such an important article and thank you for the share token to reread it.

Appropriate handle.

Ugh is that this person’s usual response to anyone recounting a traumatic experience? That the person’s awful story, is (their words), ‘shit’?
And should be hidden away?!

Actually, we don’t know numbers of detransitioned women so these may not be ‘rare’ experiences within the trans community at all. And even if statistically numbers are small, why does an absolutely devastating experience being ‘rare’ make it undeserving of being spoken about publicly, or deserving of support and action for change?

It’s fantastic that so many people have read this piece. It’s heartbreaking and their stories need to be heard. Well done to the Sunday Times and Laura Dodsworth and to the interviewees. Iirc she pitched this to the Guardian and they said no.

Glad it’s been widely read. It’s a heart moving article.

And as for it being a ‘rare story’, that’s because the TRAs don’t want their stories to be told.

The first detransitioner in the article says she knows about 100 women like her - I think the few we hear about are the tip of the iceberg!

Iirc she pitched this to the Guardian and they said no

If that’s the case the Guardian should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. The Guardian will probably never dig themselves out of their current hole because they can’t move away from their stupid, tribal politics which has closed their eyes to truth and complexity and to actual journalism. How depressing.

Reading this article makes me so angry. That these women were pushed to a point in their lives that they felt that transitioning was the only way for them, only to realise they’d been sold a lie.
Having an affirmation only approach to gender dysphoria is such a terrible option.

Did I read this on the BBC website too?

I do remember it being said the Guardian rejecting it but I can’t find a source. All of Dodsworth’s previous articles have been in there.

Did I read this on the BBC website too?

It will be this article.

www.bbc.com/news/stories-51806011

This story has been sponsored on Facebook stories and maybe Insta too recently. I screen grabbed it. So they've been pushing and promoting it, which is great, getting the message out there further. I've still got the original supplement actually.

mobile.twitter.com/DiscoDaddd/status/1282595490790547457

I think it might have been deleted - I can only find this reference which implies the Guardian didn’t go for it.

They're not rare stories, but even if they were - they still deserve to be told. The article is not presenting them as representative of all trans people. No one tries to represent de-transitioners as representative of all trans people (although many trans rights activists claim that the evil T*rfs do), but noting they exist is important.

That article was a really important one and anecdotally it's one that has facilitated some good conversations within families on this issue. Being aware that it IS complicated and nuanced - versus the endless reciting of mantras - is good.

We know the 1% detransition rate is a complete lie, it’s based on Dutch data looking at those who regret their gonadectomy, not any assessment of teenage girls who reach their 20s and regret their testosterone side effects and mastectomy. But we know that 1% doesn’t bother those in favour of the affirmative pathway. So what percentage would bother them? If it was studied properly and it turned out to be 10% regret treatment would they care? 20%?

I suspect it will be another shifting goalpost.

If they're so rare why does the detransitioners charity have so many people asking for help? Why is the Reddit area so huge?

Not so rare:

guideonragingstars.tumblr.com/post/149877706175/female-detransition-and-reidentification-survey

That survey was open for just TWO WEEKS in 2016.

But, ya know, research on detransitioned people isn't allowed under 1984 rulez.

There is a slightly different version of this article
on Dodsworth’s Medium account - also well worth reading:

medium.com/@barereality/the-detransitioners-72a4e01a10f9

Newspapers often carry human interest stories about disease and medicine etc, so I don’t not what ‘Steve’ is so offended about. Imagine being so fragile that even the personal stories of complete strangers feel like an attack on your very existence?

Wow this was incredibly powerful to read. I’ve been reading a lot about transgender/ sex/ feminism issues ever since the JKR furore and I discovered that I was apparently a ‘TERF’ for agreeing with her.
I’ve seen this article around of course but for some reason never clicked in. Thank you for sharing it again as this time I did. I was very moved by these stories and hope these women find peace and acceptance with themselves - impressively most of them appear to have done so or are on the path to it.
I was given Abigail Shrier’s book for Christmas, which is obviously examining the same issues as this article. Only just started it though.