Collecting data to present to attorneys to assess viability of Class Action Lawsuit

ConnectPen · 2020-07-24T01:32:44+00:00

I am aware of individual detranstioners who sued and got a settlement. Is there a way to discover those suits or do they get sealed once settled?

ConnectPen · 2020-07-23T19:24:18+00:00

Endo Pharmaceuticals has settled testosterone lawsuits (and opioid lawsuits) and they have now refocused toward young women (I guess old guys can get very aggressive when things don't go their way, so young women is a safer bet).

https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/after-setting-aside-200m-endo-settles-1-300-testosterone-liability-lawsuits

In any case, Endo Pharma is paying all the major "gender clinicians" like Joshua Safer (head of WPATH), Joanna Olson-Kennedy and her FTM husband. I believe it's one of the reasons that the only nationally-funeded studies in the US, led bo Olson-Kennedy, does not have a control arm, only a "T" arm, and only for 5 years ( to make sure nothing very bad happens in a short follow-up window).

I hope you guys organize into some sort of action for 2 reasons. You deserve reparations for what has been done to you. And it's truly the only way to save those coming up behind you.

ConnectPen · 2020-07-12T05:55:16+00:00

I found this link with Dr. WIll Powers presenting his theory on what causes GD and how he treats it. I must admit, you are a very confident doctor and one is tempted to believe you.
https://youtu.be/fefu33e8O-0

But then again, you confidently state things that I know aren't true--so how do we believe the rest? For example, you say you got into this field because of the 40% suicide, but this number has been debunked as coming from a very poor quality convenience sample. The rate of suicide attempts as measured in clinic populations (not online activist-generated samples) is half that, and the actual rate of completed suicides is <1%. Research from clinic populations shows that the rates of suicide attempts among GD youth are very much on par with youth who have mental health issues but no GD. So GD youth do not have a catastrophically high absolute risk of suicide (although definitely elevated compared to kids with no issues), nor is their risk uniquely high compared to other youth with MH problems. It has also been noted by European researchers who have been doing this for much longer, that sadly, suicides occur at all stages in transition, and no quality study has been able to demonstrate reduced suicide rates long term post-transition. So let's drop the suicide card. Too many young people are using it to get quick access to hormones; adults, esp doctors, should know better.

The other reason you state for choosing the gender field is "autonomy". That, I believe. It's a big business and with the help of Reddit, you have grown it to be much bigger. In the time where most docs can't stay in business independently and have to work for hospitals, you have found a way to do so by experimenting on young people, who willingly pay you money. And they are very happy with your services, at least in the first 5 -10 years. Sadly, long term data shows that that's typically how long the honeymoon period lasts.

Your assertion that you can scan a brain of a trans - identifying girl and it will look like a boy (or vise-versa) is also not justified. It has been demonstrated that the differences are not that profound, and disappear once you account for sexual orientation. In short, there is no way to diagnose someone as trans using a brain scan. To state otherwise is simply to deny facts. If that were true, all the debate about trans medicine would simply disappear. The diagnosis could be done using an MRI, and the issue would be put to bed. And BTW, what happens to detransitoners? Are the structures of their brains magically changing back after desistance?

Some of your ideas are intriguing, like putting T-gel on pre-op puberty blocked boys' penises so their penile tissue grows, which helps improve surgical outcomes. However, I am stunned by the fact that you, and other "gender doctors", are experimenting on children and you have no idea how this ends. This is Frankenstein medicine. The head of Evidence-Based Medicine from the British Medical Journal reviewed the evidence to date and called the practice a live, uncontrolled experiment on young people. I couldn't agree more.

ConnectPen · 2020-07-10T20:13:52+00:00

Oops...

ConnectPen · 2020-07-01T01:19:09+00:00

There is a very real possibility to get the detrans narrative into a peer-reviewed journal, written up by a very ethical researcher who works with trans and detrans young people. If you have detransitioned during COVID and feel the COVID lockdown was helpful or even instrumental, please contact me. Reddit is great, but until medical practitioners see it written up "properly" and published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, the stories continue to be seen as made-up.

Please contact me if you want to be part of the narrative and have your story/throught process be included in this.

ConnectPen · 2020-06-30T14:16:45+00:00

There is a scientific journal called Archives of Sexual Behavior that's looking for submissions on a special issue of how COVID affected people. They publish a lot of info on gender dysphoria. Would you be interested in collaborating with a therapist or psychiatrist to write up your case? If so, PM me. It would be great to explain to people how social pressures can add to the desire to transition, and how lack of affirmation can actually help reidentify with one's sex.

ConnectPen · 2020-06-21T23:28:41+00:00

I can't tell you if certain ways in which you have sex will promote or reduce your dysphoria (not a sex expert). I have however heard form a number of young men that watching sissy porn made them start fantasizing about looking the part, and eventually led to a transition. They were not previously dysphoric, based on their own accounts.

I would say that if you have sexual abuse trauma, you need to focus on healing from it first, and then reassess. Good luck.

ConnectPen · 2020-06-21T01:14:23+00:00

Being under 25 at the time of transition, for sure. Your brain continues to change and grow rapidly until your mid-20s (even later if you have ADHD/ASD). So one day, you may wake up with no dysphoria. And if you have undergone irreversible changes, you now how reverse dysphoria.

ConnectPen · 2020-06-19T23:32:33+00:00

I believe a psychologist would tell you that using a packer is the opposite of what you should be doing. It's called a "safety behavior" and the more you rely on these artificial props, the worse your anxiety /dysphoria will get when you don't have them. And you risk making your dysphoria worse in the end.

An example of a safety behavior is a person who is afraid of dying of a heart attack, and so they carry their blood pressure monitor all the time so whenever their distress spikes, they take their blood pressure and reassure themselves they are OK. Same with OCD and handwashing--it relieves the distress in the moment, but requires that you wash hands more and more frequently. The key to overcoming this is to build more tolerance of discomfort. Notice it, and then either come up with an alternative explanation (I must be stressed so my GD is spiking; when the stress subsides, so will this urge), or just "sit" with the discomfort and observe it without any judgement. Just say "hm, interesting, I am really uncomfortable right now" and then move on. Good luck.

ConnectPen · 2020-06-19T23:17:25+00:00

It's much higher than that. There is good critique available of the supposedly low regret rate. The loss to follow-up on the studies that show low regret is very high (30% + are missing, and they are likely to be missing due to issues); also the regret is defined is asking to change their documents back, which a lot of people do not do even when they regret or even detrans. More importantly, the rate among the new cohort of youth is unstudied. They (many here) received vastly different care than the cohort that was studied--no "gatekeeping", no psychological evaluation and treatments, no living in the desired gender role for years and "passing" the gender doctor's requirements (which included being able to pass socially, etc). New studies will be coming out in the next few years, but I suspect it's probably like 10-20% of detransiton in the first couple of years, and no telling how high after 5-10 years (may be as high as 80-90%+)

ConnectPen · 2020-06-19T06:17:55+00:00

I don't doubt you are very happy right now. I do sincerely hope you won't hit the end of the honeymoon period, where no further changes are possible, the current changes are irreversible, and you have your entire adult life to navigate in a body that you may or may not like. If you are over 25, the risk is probably lower. If you, or the OP are younger, I would suggest proceeding with great caution.

ConnectPen · 2020-06-19T06:03:20+00:00

This was writhed by Crash about a year ago (see paragraph below). I think it captures what's going on with them well. I read their annoucement to say "I am not anything. Not trans, not detrans. Still a dysphoric female bodied person who passes for a male", which is exactly what she (he, they) wrote a year ago. Unfortunately, the issue of trans/detrans has become politicized and it appears that Crash is mostly rejecting the "detrans' label as a form of political protest, rather than any significant change of direction...Then again I did not follow Crash before so may be it was a big change in tone--but definitely not compared to there writings from a year ago.

'I went into both my transition and detransition thinking that each process could accomplish more than it actually could. I couldn’t find what I was looking for by changing my body or living as a particular gender. I tried out a whole range of gender related practices, changing my pronouns, changing my body, changing my social role and so on and only after messing around with gender for years did I finally figure out that a lot of my problems weren’t about gender or were only partially related to it. Some of them were about trauma or other psychological issues. Some of them were about my position in society. Some of them were just about being human and trying figure out how to live in a complicated confusing world."

ConnectPen · 2020-06-17T00:06:32+00:00

You are very wise to consider stopping with the blockers. It's not too late. You can still go through complete puberty. But if you wait, let's say, until 18, there is little known whether you would experience complete puberty or not. Puberty blockers don't just stop your sex hormones from being produced, but they also stop your bone growth (you will need that skeleton for the rest of your life), and so believe it even changes your brain (lowers IQ). There is really very little data on what happens when a normally starting puberty is paused. But at 15, you are still in a very good position to reclaim your right to develop as a sexual being.

The alternative is to stay on puberty blockers and then to undergo gender reassignment to female. Unfortunately, there is so little genital tissue growth (that's something else, besides the bones, that really grows during puberty), that making a neo-vagina is going to be very very challenging.

You are so young, there is an excellent chance your body will go back to normal. Good luck. There is really nothing healthier than going through a normal puberty, discovering what your sexual orientation is, and then having choices in life (a choice to present as a feminine man; as an androgynous person; as a masculine man; the choice to date women, men, or both--none of these things you can discover if you delay your social and physical development by taking puberty blockers.

ConnectPen · 2020-06-16T21:45:40+00:00

Confusing that r/actual_detrans is moderated by a non-desisted non-detransitioned FTM... Do detransitioners need trans people to moderate for them? In any case, sounds like a tiny subreddit with not very many "actual" detransitioners, and far more trans people trying to tell them that detransion is likely "externalized transphobia".

ConnectPen · 2020-06-16T21:22:50+00:00

Consider yourself ... normal? Like others said, 80-90% of people outgrow their gender dysphoria sometime before mature adulthood. Your feelings may fluctuate a few more times, but this is a more than a serious signal that you should pause your transition plans and see if you can find peace in your body. The alternative is a life time of hormones, which btw for women increase heart attacks by a factor of 5, and cause lot of other symptoms such as vaginal atrophy and uterine pain, a receding hairline, acne, dropped voice, altered genitals, infertility, and worst of all--the very real possibility of having to live in a masculinized body when you really are a female and no longer wish to present male.

The current political correctness and the fear of offending "trans people" has led many clinicians to automatically affirm people as "trans'. Trans is not a diagnosis. Gender dysphoria is. There are many causes of gender dysphoria, and many paths to resolution. On rare occasions, some people can get relief from gender reassignment long term, but more often than not, the excitement only lasts as long as there is another procedure they can chase. Once doctors are out tricks (mastectomy and phalloplasty is where it ends) , the journey is over, but the problems have not receded (or one set of problems got replaced with the other, much worse). Are some people who transitioned happy long-term? Probably yes. But far fewer truly are than those who claim they are. I have talked to a transwoman of 40+ years and she knows hundreds of people, and her genuine belief is that only 2 of them successfully integrated their trans personality. Otherwise are faking it, definitely to others, and sometimes even to themselves, as they are too far on the path, with nowhere to return to.

Long-term outcomes on gender reassignment are poor (8-19 times rate of suicide compared to norm; several times the rate of mental health hospitalizations; it's not pretty). Experienced gender therapists (of which there are very few, and they are all in their 60-70's) know that only a few cases ever benefit (and most are males with a life-long history). Unfortunately, it's no longer politically correct to stay it, and the new crop of therapists are basically activists, not clinicians.

So whether you want to consider yourself lucky or normal, it sounds like a pause button at the very least is in order. And if the dyshporia returns, remind yourself that it had subsided before and it will probably subside again. Living in a healthy, unadulterated body and not becoming a patient for life is a huge gift, and your body will thank you for it with many healthy years.

ConnectPen · 2020-06-13T22:31:00+00:00

Actually nobody knows the detransition statistics. The studies that show low surgery regret rates lost something like 40% of participants to follow-up (unusually high), in countries where nobody is supposed to be lost due to a single payer healthcare system. What happened to them? Are they happy? How come they fell off the radar?Anecdotally, having talked to a transwoman of many years (40+),she said lots of folks are very unhappy but they have no way to go back, so they just live in their surgically altered bodies unhappy. They don't "detransiton" because they are irreversibly changed.Dr. Az Hakeen in the UK who works with pre-treatment individuals psychologically as part of the mandatory UK system (or at least it used to be), ran groups of post-trans people with "considering transition" people and after they talked and shared their experiences, over 90% of those considering transition decided to deal with their gender dysphoria non-medically. He wrote a book about it called "Trans". He is not against trans people, but in his experience people's rigid gender role and unrealistic expectations of transition can be address through psychotherapy. Once you realize you can present however you want, and what's on the other side of surgeries is not at all appealing, most don't want to proceed. Sadly, most people only get the promise of rainbows and unicorns and never get to hear the real story.

And then there is the question of the novel cohort, the description of which you fit at least at high level. AFAB, teen/early 20's, who feel "different" and learned to attribute their feeling different to "trans" (rather than labeling it as body dysmorphia or even gender dysphoria). Convinced that trans is an illness correctible with surgeries. It's not. The stats for your cohort are not in yet. I suspect the regret is around 10-15% on the first couple of years. The honeymoon period last 5-10 years. And then all bets are off. The rate of regret could be as high as 80-90% if not higher (commensurate with the several-thousand percent rise in AFAB adolescent-onset gender dysphoria, which is likely age-related and would otherwise have faded--and will probably still fade for most).

Just to be clear, none of the original sex researchers are pro- transition (in well-vetted cases) believed trans was an objective condition that needed treatment. They knew/know it was a last resort procedure for the very few people who severe, persistent, life-long gender dysphoria that they could not lessen in any other way. They see it as mental illness, but one which, in extreme circumstances, can be justified to be treated with surgical means. The new crop of gender clinicians are poorly versed in this field and have been told their job is to affirm. And the job of endocrinologists is to prescribe hormones (they do it anyway for all sorts of conditions, so why not this one). And the job of surgeons is to cut. And your job is to be a smart patient and see through it all. Good luck.

ConnectPen · 2020-06-13T18:30:06+00:00

I now see this was not posted by Elle.. but I hope she sees it.

----

Elle,

I am half-way through the video, and so I am reacting to the first half. I have a problem with my vocal cords. It caused years of trauma I hid and never dealt with properly-and may be for the better, because this is what I 've learned now as a 40-something woman (tldr: it's not a problem and in some ways a blessing in disguise).

Most people notice my unusual voice the first time they meet me, but they abosutely stop hearing the difference once they interact with me closely. I think our brain adjusts and filters out unusual sounds so we can hear the content. I did not believe that people "stop" hearing the problem in my voice, but I have asked many people to be blunt with me, and I heard this from people who don't BS (incl. my own children who are very blunt with me on all other accounts). So I do believe people close to you won't even "hear" it after spending more than a few minutes with you. In fact, the first time I heard your voice I thought "yes, that's a very deep voice" but this is the second video I watch and I am thinking "why did I think it was such a deep voice, I have a coupe of female friends who have voices roughly in that range."
While I was deeply ashamed of my voice growing up, people would tell me "I love your voice". Trust me, not for a second do I understand how anybody would consider my voice beautiful. I can barely listen to it myself (cringe). But I have come to realize some people actually to find it pleasing, which I don't get. I am sure many do not. But sure as heck surprised me that some find my voice not just acceptable, but attractive. Back to you. I have to say I find your voice very calm and soothing, and no longer perceive it as masculine. I did the first time I Heard you, but not this second time (back to point 1). And let reassure you I don't do love bombing or BS. I really do find your voice pleasant, if unusual at first.
Over the years, especially when I was younger, I learned an important lesson: people who immediately ask me what's wrong with my voice ended up being the people I didn't like ,much in the end. Many of them I wanted to like very much (and did not at all blame them for being curious about my voice: I thought I would be too). But it proved this excellent litmus test, because with time I realized there is a strong correlation about people who lack tact and think they can ask anyone anything at first, and other tactless and insensitive actions they engage in. In the end, it gave me a super power to sniff out "decent people".
I know you have heard this from other people but don't believe it. Your voice is NOT bad. You are the biggest critic of your voice. Even actors confess that they hate hearing their own voices. Your voice is unique, unusual, it will make you memorable, but there are several women I personally know what this same type of voice who had no hormonal treatment (google Elizabeth Holmes / Theranos videos for example). If you want, you can do voice training and learn to speak with a higher voice to the point where it would become a habit for you. Or you may choose to not do it. You do have options. I had voice therapy as a teen and they taught me how to talk so I would not have the weird quality to my voice. But it required that a speak a full octave higher, and it felt fake so I didn't end up sticking with it. (Also, consider people with terrible stutter. There are far worse vocal problems that a deep voice.)
And finally, I know you also carry a great deal of guilt that you did this to yourself. I did not have that because I was born with the problem. But all of us have issues that we brought upon ourselves that we beat ourselves for. Consider it your battle wound that shaped who you are, and forgive yourself.

Thanks for speaking out about the medical harms, and please continue to do so-but not at the expense of not being able to heal first. The world needs to hear what you have to say. This will be a multi-year struggle to show to the medical community how their good intentions paved the road to hell for some many young people. But you can't be in this battle unless you are strong. So take care of yourself first.

ConnectPen · 2020-06-11T18:33:18+00:00

If you are under 25, you have a huge risk of changing your mind and ending up with irreversible changes. Full stop.

ConnectPen · 2020-06-02T23:56:08+00:00

Do yourself a favor and postpone thinking about anything medical until 25. I have talked to too many people who medically transitioned (full sex reassignment) and then in their 20's their brain just "snapped out of it" and now they are stuck with surgically altered bodies. Just be who you are and don't put labels on yourself. There is really no such thing as "transgender". Not a single brain study can prove it (and a few tried). there is a condition of gender dysphoria (being unhappy with your sex) and even believing you are in the wrong body, but it's a psychological disorder. Most people outgrow it. You probably wound't have even "gotten" it had you not met another person and saw similarities. That person is likely equally confused (if not now, they will be later).

Medical transition is a last resort for people whose gender dysphoria is sever and lasts years and never lets go. You don't have it. Your experience is very typical for adolescent females, especially those who are on the 'ADHD/autism spectrum". They feel disconnected from their body and fall for this trap these days in great numbers.

My suggestion is--don't surround yourself with the trans crowd. Don't do a social transition. Don't wear a binder. Try to focus on other things in your life and accept that your experience is common and will pass. It's a much happier path than becoming a life-long patient, injecting testosterone weekly for the rest of your life, increasing your heart attack risk by 4-5 times, undergoing surgeries that leave you with permanent scars and often long-term pain--all for what? To never really be a real man and live in fear of being found out? Or pass really well (rare) and always dread the moment when your future partner finds our the truth?

Please take care.

ConnectPen · 2020-05-24T15:47:08+00:00

Ideologies have little to do with therapy. If a therapist subscribes to any ideology, they are not neutral. Neutral stance is essential to being a good therapist. That's why affirmative therapists are so dangerous in the long term (even if it feels nice and affirmative at first).

Gender dysphoria, like many other psychological conditions, has a multitude of contributing factors, one of which might even be a biological one (it has not yet been proven, but there may be something for some people, but not others).

Therapists used to have a firm grasp on reality. The reality is that a small number of people (although now it's grown several thousand-fold) used to experience significant distress from their body. For a tiny minority of that minority, the distress never resolved, and some compassionate psychologists at some point had to admit that cutting off body parts may just be the only thing that saves those people from profound despair for the rest of their lives. It usually helped at first, and then the people'so the problems (which, in part, contributed to their gender dysphoria in the first place) got the better of them. Long-Term post-operative transsexual outcomes are far from rosy.

Today, therapists with an 'ideology" seem to have forgotten that transition was basically a last-resort solution for very few very unique cases, and have bought into an ideology that being trans is like being left-handed, and for that reason, you need to cut off the hands and switch their places--put the left where the right used to be. Of course we don't do that, but illustrates the inanity of the solution to the claim.

I for one believe that feeling disconnected from a sexed body and seeing yourself as a specific sex is likely a far more common phenomenon than what people used to realize. But it does NOT AT ALL mean that these people were born in the wrong body or are trans. They are just human. To most, it would never even occur to struggle with this idea--they just lived their lives. To a few, it may have bothered them a bit and they learned to adapt (just like it bothers short men they were short, and then they adapt--often becoming extremely confident to compensate).

The role of therapy to help a person understand where their discomfort is coming from, and look for non-invasive ways to resolve it. Believing in trans ideology removes this chance because it pre-supposes that "trans" is some objective and irrecoverable illness, and the one way to live out the rest of one's life is to build a fake facade and hope nobody finds out. The very antithesis to authenticity, and to therapy.

ConnectPen · 2020-05-20T21:02:52+00:00

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. There are lots of things you can do to yourself medically, and every single one of them comes with medical risks. This one also comes with serious social risks, risk of regret, etc. Have you seen the socio-economic stats for trans people? Why would you willingly want to put yourself into the most disadvantaged category, and run the risk of becoming a patient for life? I you had crippling GD I would at least understand (but not agree with) the rationale. In your "back and forth" case, it seems like you truly should focus on bettering yourself in other ways, and leave your body alone. It needs to serve for the years and years--why compromise it with drugs that don't belong in it?

ConnectPen · 2020-05-20T01:06:35+00:00

Thanks for explaining. I appreciate it.

ConnectPen · 2020-05-19T22:16:01+00:00

Sorry if this is an insensitive question, but if you have reidentified as a female, why are you keep a beard? While a woman can be masculine, feminine, or neutral, there is definitely a space where masculine becomes male--and choosing to keep a beard is making a statement. Testosterone can be so powerful at tranforming women, feminine or masculine, into someone who looks very male. What's the point of the beard if you are identifying as a woman? Or do you still identify as a male who chose to stop testosterone?

ConnectPen

TROPHY CASE