EXCLUSIVE: A detransitioner suing the American Academy of Pediatrics claims doctors encourage transgender medical treatments for financial gain.
“Part of me thinks of the financial aspect,” Isabelle Ayala told The Dallas Express. “Transgender patients are patients for life — and that can be exploited.”
Ayala’s pending lawsuit against the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and an extensive list of healthcare workers in Rhode Island alleges medical malpractice that prioritizes politics over the health of children. This includes a claim that medical workers pressured her parents to put her on transgender hormones when she was 14 years old.
“They basically told my parents, ‘If you don’t put your child on hormones, she is going to die,’” Ayala told DX. “I really do feel like my parents were coerced.”
A doctor allegedly recommended she take transgender hormones after a single one-hour appointment, according to the lawsuit. She emphasized there was little discussion about the potential side effects of transgender hormones.
“I was 14 and not equipped to talk about those issues,” she told DX.
Ayala said doctors dismissed concerns about her autism, ADHD, and PTSD from a sexual assault.
AAP has an official outline for parents on how to transition children.
Ayala experienced several medical complications after taking transgender hormones, such as vaginal atrophy and a diagnosis of an auto-immune disease previously only found in men in her family.
“I wish we had the proper research on the effects of these hormones on the body,” she told DX. “I wasn’t given a laundry list. I was given a few on a piece of paper.”
The complications from the transgender hormones eventually led Ayala to stop taking the drugs. She said her detransition allowed her to mature and identify the causes of her gender dysphoria properly.
“The internet definitely played a huge part in it,” she told DX. “Especially seeing people talking about their supposed success stories with their surgeries and hormones. But not seeing much about the risks and side effects.”
“I came to the conclusion that I had internalized misogyny,” she continued. “I was scared about becoming a woman because of how I was perceived sexually by men.”
Ayala said she hopes her lawsuit can raise awareness about the suffering of children pressured into taking harmful transgender hormones.
“I am pretty optimistic,” she told DX. “Even if I lose this battle, I know what I’m fighting for is right. I know what I’ve been through, I know what others have been through, and I know there are many others who are anonymously online talking about what they’ve been through. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone else.”
AAP did not respond to a request for comment.