"I Regret Trusting the Doctors Who Pushed Me to Transition Gender"
I was 25, autistic, and struggling with OCD. On the first day, the NHS clinic asked, "Surgery?" and then pressured me into it when I hesitated. I woke up mutilated, incontinent, and convinced I had been betrayed. Vulnerable adults need protection, not ultimatums.
Overview
Ritchie Herron accessed NHS gender services in his early 20s while dealing with undiagnosed autism and severe OCD. After 2.5 years of therapy—during which he consistently declined surgery—the clinic presented him with an ultimatum: proceed with surgery or be discharged. In 2018, he underwent irreversible gender-reassignment surgery, experienced complications, and instantly realized it was a mistake. Herron now advocates for stronger mental-health safeguards, emphasizing that chronological adulthood alone is insufficient to protect vulnerable patients.
Full Video Summary
Ritchie Herron, now speaking as a detransitioner, says he entered the NHS in his early 20s carrying a heavy load of undiagnosed autism and severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, along with a lifelong sense of alienation. By 25 he discovered “gender dysphoria” online and felt it explained every struggle he had ever faced. Once that conviction took hold, he recalls, the online trans community and then the medical professionals he met offered no challenge—only affirmation. He formally entered the gender-clinic system in 2015, where the very first question he was asked was “Do you want surgery?” although he insists he had come seeking therapy, not an operation. Over the next two and a half years Herron underwent therapy but repeatedly refused surgery. He says the clinic eventually presented an ultimatum: accept the operation or be discharged. By then, he explains, he had absorbed the constant message that he was an “ideal candidate,” and any lingering doubts were reframed as internalised transphobia or inevitable physical decline caused by hormones. In 2018, feeling cornered and still trusting the clinicians, he underwent gender-reassignment surgery. The procedure itself was complicated—he suffered bleeding, ongoing urinary problems and pain—and the moment he woke up he knew “that was not what I should have done.” Herron emphasises that he does not oppose transition for others; he stresses that the process once served as a “bridge” out of a very dark period of his life. What he now campaigns for are robust safeguards for vulnerable patients, whatever their age. He argues that mental-health comorbidities, autism, addiction or other factors can erode a person’s ability to refuse medical authority, and that chronological adulthood alone is not a sufficient safeguard. Reflecting on the years he lived as “Abby,” he says he had already begun trying to step away from that identity in 2015-17, sensing he had derived what he needed from the experience. His regret, he repeats, is not the years lived in transition but “trusting” the clinicians who, he believes, failed to protect a vulnerable patient.