Sunday's "60 Minutes' on CBS put the spotlight on a topic that is often overlooked in mainstream media: detransitioning. In the special, CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl spoke to former transgender people called "detransitioners" who once transitioned but later reversed the process.
Now, these people are blowing the whistle on how patients like themselves are "not being properly evaluated in accordance with professional guidelines before being prescribed hormone treatments or approved for surgery."
Stahl, together with the production team led by Alexandra Poolos and Collette Richards spoke to several detransitioners, former transgender people who had issues over transgender health care. Stahl admitted to CBS News that she "spoke to more people on this story than any other story" she has worked on for "60 Minutes." The result was several detransitioners coming out to say how "the medical community needs to make it more difficult to change genders and have surgery," Christian Headlines (CH) reported.
Detransitioning is often a taboo subject in this day and age when transitioning and transgenderism is reported on in a positive light by the mainstream media. But on the Internet, a Reddit "detransition" support group has over 19,000 members. Just last month, a campaign took to the streets in Los Angeles to help raise awareness on detransitioning. In "60 Minutes," Stahl spoke to one detransitioner who shared the same sentiments as those people on Reddit.
Grace Lidinsky-Smith, who was born female, transitioned to male and then back to female. All while dealing with depression, she learned about transgenderism through the transgender communities on the Internet. She observed how they were "being so happy and excited about doing this wonderful transformative process to really become their true selves" and wondered if she could do the same for herself.
According to CH, Grace Lidinsky-Smith shared that she saw a therapist for her depression, but her therapist did not "go into what my gender dysphoria might have been stemming from. We only had a few sessions."
When she decided she wanted to transition, Lidinsky-Smith was approved for hormone shots by the clinic, which she said "didn't ask many questions." After four months of hormone treatments, she was approved for a mastectomy. She underwent the surgery, which she regretted almost immediately. She admitted, "I started to have a really disturbing sense that like a part of my body was missing."
It was then when Lidinsky-Smith decided to detransition. But the medical community is not entirely to blame, as they too have reservations about transgender therapy and surgery. Stahl spoke to Laura Edwards-Leeper a psychologist at Boston Children's Hospital who believes that doctors may face backlash from the transgender community if they are not open or welcoming to those who want to undergo such transition procedures.
"Everyone is very scared to speak up because we're afraid of not being seen as being affirming or being supportive of these young people or doing something to hurt the trans community," Dr. Edwards-Leeper admitted. "But even some of the providers are trans themselves and share these concerns."
Lidinsky-Smith argues that the solution is to have "more help from therapists with [those who have] dysphoria." She said, "We want there to be longer-term tracking of health outcomes. Everyone benefits from that."
