The Detransition Diaries tackles one of the thorniest and most scandalous medical movements of the 21st century — the pervasive, perverse spread of genitalia mutilation and hormone experimentation in America, protected under the umbrella of “transitioning.” Nurses and bioethics advocates Jennifer Lahl and Kallie Fell undertake a comprehensive and historical study of the movement, highlighting the personal accounts of seven people who were persuaded in, and fought their way out. (The book is also based in part on a documentary by the same name.)

Lahl and Fell describe the cult-like ideology and highly stereotyped “gender” expectations within the movement, the healthy bodies induced into a diseased state with wrong-sex hormones and unnecessary surgeries, the “abysmal” quality of studies affirming the health and safety of “transition treatment,” and the money to be made. They note the connection between mental health and comorbidities with people choosing to “transition,” and the constant, coercive affirmation from doctors and therapists, especially those specializing in wrongly termed “gender care.”

The five women and two men who share firsthand the deception, coercion, and aggressive retaliation targeting detractors within the movement are just a sampling of those who have suffered under the guise of transgender interventions.

Helena’s self-harming, eating disorder, and depression as a young teen led her to online groups encouraging transitioning as the “solution” to almost all mental health struggles. Her school........

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