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11 months ago
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A Florida woman who transitioned from female to male at the age of 14, only to detransition three years later, is telling her story in a new documentary, hoping it makes others think twice.
Isabelle Ayala, now 20, is suing the American Academy of Pediatrics, claiming she was given testosterone after one 45-minute appointment while living in Rhode Island.
She told the documentary makers she is relieved surgery was never offered to her, as she would have wanted it - and would have ruined her life.
'I just really don't want this to happen to other vulnerable young girls,' said Ayala.
She said doctors only looked at her for minutes before she was diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
'If I was just evaluated a little more this would have never happened - but it took you 45 minutes to change my entire life and give me irreversible health issues.'
Isabelle Ayala transitioned at 14 from female to male; three years later, she realized she had made a mistake
She told The New York Post she felt the procedures were being offered too soon, and too readily.
'I don't want puberty to be the enemy. I don't want our natural biology to be the enemy,' she said.
The documentary is part of the Independent Women's Forum series entitled Identity Crisis. Ayala's 12-minute episode, The Detransitioner Taking on the American Academy of Pediatrics, tells how she found a trans community online and seized on the idea of transitioning.
She said she was sexually abused as a child, and sought escape.
'I decided to transition because of just a series of unfortunate things that I had tied to being female. And those things made me hate being female,' she said, adding that she first came across the trans community at the age of 11, on Tumblr.
'This is going to fix me,' she recalled thinking.
Ayala said internet forums and social media taught her to say that she was suicidal, and so at the age of 14 she convinced doctors to help her. She is now suing them, arguing that she was used as a guinea pig.
Ayala was prescribed testosterone, with which she injected herself
'I learned that from the internet that I had to convince [my doctors and family] that if they don't affirm me, I'm gonna kill myself,' she said.
'I was a healthy kid,' she said in the documentary. 'I was a physically healthy kid.
Ayala claims Dr Jason Rafferty, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics's LGBTQ+ Health and Wellness Committee, prescribed her testosterone after the initial visit.
She said she was taking legal action to try and prevent others from suffering.
'I don't want these doctors to practice anymore, I really don't,' she said. 'I don't think they deserve to practice when they are ignoring the harm that they're doing.'
Kelsey Bolar, the IWF's director of storytelling and executive producer of the documentary, told The New York Post that Ayala's story was compelling.
'What I find so interesting about Isabelle is that she's a soft-spoken individual and not someone seeking out attention,' said Bolar.
'She's really doing this for the right reasons.'
Ayala claims doctors ignored the fact she has autism, ADHD and suffers from PTSD, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder and depression when she was prescribed the drugs.
She is now left in daily pain, with symptoms including vaginal dryness, burning and itching - which usually occurs after menopause - and is unsure about her ability to have children in future.
Ayala is suing the doctors who treated her and the American Academy of Pediatrics, an association of children's doctors that she claims knowingly misled the public in publishing and disseminating a fraudulent 'policy statement' on affirmative care that has been perceived by many as an authoritative guide for the treatment of gender-confused children in the US.
Isabelle Ayala, now 20, is suing the doctors who treated her and the American Academy of Pediatrics
Dr. Jason Rafferty (pictured left), a Harvard graduate, was the author of the 2018 association's policy statement which essentially created the 'affirmative care' model, where the doctor is led by desires expressed by the patient and recognizes, validates and supports the identity stated by the individual. Pictured right is Dr. Michelle Forcier, who is among the country's most prominent figures on 'gender affirming hormones and care plans', who contributed to Ayala's care
Insurance claims for puberty blockers in the US have doubled since 2017
She also told doctors she was unsure about taking testosterone because she might want to have a biological child in future.
Testosterone is a male hormone that stops menstrual cycles and decreases the ovaries' ability to produce estrogen, meaning it can affect fertility and sexual function.
In November 2017, she attempted suicide.
She later moved back to Florida in June 2018, and continued to take testosterone for around a year, before quitting it 'cold turkey.'
Off the sex hormones, Ayala gradually grew out of her gender dysphoria and realized she was not a boy.
The years of testosterone injections have left her with vaginal atrophy, physical pain, and the triggering of an auto-immune disease, Hashimotos's disease, which was only present in males in her family.
'Isabelle has suffered from vaginal atrophy from the extensive use of testosterone; she deals with excess facial and body hair; she struggles with compromised bone structure; she is unsure whether her fertility has been irreversibly compromised; she still has mental health issues and deals with episodes of anxiety and depression, further compounded by a sense of regret,' the lawsuit explained.
Other detransitioners have sued medical providers, but Ayala is the first to target the American Academy of Pediatrics directly.
They have not commented on her case, which was filed in October. She is seeking an unspecified amount in compensatory and punitive damages.
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