They’re the stories that you’re not supposed to talk about in today’s woke society lest the trans activists swoop in and have you canceled for “hate speech” or whatever. Gender-confused children and many adults are “transitioning” in record numbers and bringing in a fortune for the medical industry in the process. But what happens to those who come to regret their decision and want to return to their natural gender? They are the detransitioners, and it happens more than you might suspect if you only listen to the mainstream media. Most of their stories are tragic, but also very educational if we’re ever going to find a way to offer better help – actual help – to people dealing with gender confusion issues. Caroline Downey at National Review has been collecting and publishing the stories of many of these people, and while they can be difficult to read, they demonstrate some tragic patterns that may help others in the future. One of the latest and possibly most tragic is the tale of 19-year-old “Evie.” Suffering severe abuse at home and dealing with multiple mental health challenges, she was steered into the transition pipeline and it nearly cost her her life. (Warning: The linked article contains a graphic picture of a woman’s naked torso following a full mastectomy. Reader discretion is advised.)

Raised by a father who was a raging alcoholic and a mother struggling with health issues, Evelyn had a chaotic childhood in San Diego.

“I remember the first time I told my mom I was suicidal,” Evelyn, 19, who goes by “Evie,” told National Review. “I was nine years old, and it was after I tried to hang myself with a scarf in my room. After that, it was all downhill.”

Evie’s spiral, she said, can be traced to the heinous abuse she suffered at the hands of her father. By the time she was four years old, he was drinking two bottles of vodka every day.

“It was very violent,” she said. “It would get worse and worse and worse.”

Evie suffered sexual abuse at the hands of her alcoholic father from a very early age. It would continue until he eventually took his own life. At the age of 11, she was first taken to a clinic that treated severely emotionally disturbed children. It was there that a “therapist” first suggested to her that she might be gender dysphoric and that such a situation was “normal.” It had never once occurred to Evie that she might be a boy until they put the thought into her head.

Within a few months, she had “come out” to her mother, saying she wished to be called “Evan” and use male pronouns. That didn’t fix anything in her life and she was soon in treatment for self-harm, including cutting herself. She was put on Prozac. She abandoned her masculine identity after a few months.

Evie was in and out of various clinics, in-patient facilities, and group homes for the rest of her childhood. She wound up being convinced to “transition” a total of three times while being treated for a variety of mental and emotional health issues. By 16, she was on testosterone and another doctor encouraged her to have a mastectomy, which she did in 2021.

Read the rest of her story at the link above if you can stomach it, but we should also consider this tragic tale for what it clearly represents. Yet again, we see a person who had never questioned their gender until an adult suggest it to them. She was clearly suffering from severe mental illness triggered by the abuse she suffered as a child. She desperately needed care for those mental health issues, but was instead convinced that her problems would go away if she became a boy. How on Earth could any actual medical professional think that this is a legitimate path to healing?

Now Evie’s body is forever changed because of the surgery and the hormones and other drugs. She will never be able to go back to being fully normal, but she is at least living as a woman again and trying to help others. Caroline Downey has more stories like Evie’s in the collection I linked above. They’re all tragic, but if they wind up helping other children going through the same type of pain, perhaps it will have been worth it.