"They Put Me On Puberty Blockers At 13 Because They Said I Was Trans"- Detransitioner's Horror Story
They told me transition was the only way to have a livable life, but the blocker made me pee blood and the doctor falsified my records. They took my self-discovery and left me permanently damaged.
Overview
Jonni Skinner describes being socially and medically transitioned at thirteen after a gender therapist magnified his insecurities about being a feminine, autistic, church-raised boy. Prescribed spironolactone, estrogen, and later a two-year puberty blocker implant, he suffered severe physical side effects that doctors dismissed. Now twenty-three and detransitioned, he warns that medicalizing minors robbed him of self-discovery and left him with permanent health problems.
Full Video Summary
Jonni Skinner recounts how, as a feminine boy with an autism diagnosis who was raised in a strict Lutheran household, he told his mother at age thirteen that he might be trans after watching male makeup gurus and a family friend transition online. In May 2016, a gender therapist at the University of Michigan’s comprehensive gender services program separated him from his mother and tailored her remarks to his insecurities, telling him that gay men want masculine partners and that his feminine essence meant he would struggle to find love, framing medical transition as his only route to a livable life. Within months, clinicians prescribed spironolactone and estradiol, and two months after his fourteenth birthday they implanted a histrelin acetate blocker in his arm that released anti-androgens for nearly two years. Jonni describes catastrophic physical consequences. On spironolactone he suffered dizzy spells and fainting; after the implant he developed hematuria, horrific full-body muscle spasms, and urinary incontinence that caused him to miss much of his freshman year. His mother had to fight for months to have the device removed, and he says the doctor falsified his medical records. He also says the endocrinologist deliberately stunted his growth, arguing tall women are less attractive to men, and at thirteen sent him and his mother to an adult shop with a therapist’s business card to buy feminizing underwear and realistic breast forms, exposing him to sex toys and a BDSM section that horrified his mother. Living as a trans woman from thirteen to twenty-one, Jonni initially believed he had a brain condition and integrated into society, yet he grew ill and disillusioned. Meeting happy, non-conforming gay adults helped him realize his own self-discovery had been stolen. Now twenty-three and detransitioned for nearly three years, he has refused exogenous testosterone so his body can recover naturally, but he continues to endure sexual dysfunction, chronic urinary incontinence, painful bone growths near his joints, and a stunted, feminized frame. He emphasizes that while adults may make different choices, pushing children into medical transition denies them the secure, confident understanding of themselves that comes only through organic self-discovery.