NH Senator Kevin Avard filed bill SB304 to create a cause of action for medical injuries resulting from medical gender transition. I submitted the following testimony in support of his bill to the NH Senate Judiciary Committee. It is the personal and tragic account of a young detransitioner from Massachusetts who tweets at twitter.com/sam_the_m.
My name is Sam. I started identifying as transgender as a teenager, which would eventually lead me down the path of cross-sex hormones and irreversible surgeries. By the time I was 21 years old, I had completed my medical transition which included having my penis and testicles amputated, a decision that I now deeply regret.
I was formally diagnosed with gender dysphoria by two qualified psychologists, both of whom recommended sex reassignment as a solution to my gender dysphoria. During both of my assessments, few attempts were made at understanding the underlying etiology of my gender dysphoria or the underlying motivations that led me to identify as transgender. I was treated based on the affirmation model of care, where therapists are discouraged and sometimes even prohibited from attempting to question or challenge the decisions and beliefs of their clients.
A balanced approach to treatment for young people who experience gender dysphoria should include a differential diagnosis and explorative therapy to address comorbid psychosocial conditions before escalating to drastic and irreversible measures like a gender transition. There is limited evidence that suggests that sex reassignment procedures produce desirable long-term outcomes, and many young people who undergo this process will come to regret it.
A notable study of adolescents with gender dysphoria concluded that most adolescents who experience gender dysphoria will grow out of it by the time they reach adulthood. I would eventually grow out of my gender dysphoria by the time I was 22 years old, but by that time my reproductive organs had already been amputated.
A medical doctor who supports the decision of a patient to have their arms amputated would be met with disgrace and would have their fitness to practice questioned. Why is this not the case when the patient demands to have their reproductive organs removed?
In retrospect, as I reflect on my journey, I now recognize that I was immature and lacked the wisdom necessary to understand the long-term implications of my decisions. I feel that I was misled to believe that I was born in the wrong body and that gender reassignment was a solution to my discomfort, and subsequently subjected to a medical experiment that reminds me more of a modern-day lobotomy than evidence-based healthcare.
I hope you will make the right decision to promote patient safety and protect young people from being irreversibly harmed by irresponsible practitioners.
Related: A Bill To Protect Citizen’s Sexuality From Abuse and Negligence by Their Doctors
The Senate Judiciary Committee is still accepting testimony for SB304. Contact them and ask them to vote Ought to Pass to protect vulnerable young people from these horrific experiments.
Watch Senator Avard read Sam’s story below.
“I was misled to believe I was born in the wrong body, and that gender reassignment was the solution for my discomfort, and subsequently subjected to a medical experiment.” Sen. Kevin Avard reads @Sam_the_m‘s testimony in support of SB304 @avard_kevin #NHPolitics pic.twitter.com/ptTccizWZe
— Sidewalk Steve (@Sidewalk_Steve) January 17, 2024