A Canadian woman is suing the medics who ushered her through irreversible ‘sex-swap’ procedures while failing to properly address her mental health problems.
Michelle Zacchigna began the process of ‘transitioning’ from female to male in 2010, when she was placed on testosterone. In 2012, she underwent a double mastectomy.
In a first-of-its-kind case in Canada, she is suing the eight doctors and mental health professionals who treated her “without providing a differential diagnosis or proposing alternative treatments”.
‘Coping mechanism’
Zacchigna was diagnosed with ADHD, Tourette syndrome, borderline personality disorder, clinical depression, autism spectrum disorder and traits of PTSD in 2017.
it left us feeling broken and alone
Despite this, she was still referred for further surgery and in 2018 underwent a partial hysterectomy.
She says transitioning was a coping mechanism for her and thousands of others dealing with “trauma, hatred of ourselves and a number of comorbid conditions”.
She said: “It altered our bodies, it destroyed our natural functioning, it gave us chronic pain and lifelong complications; and it left us feeling broken and alone.”
Regret
An Australian woman has also shared her regret that the double mastectomy she underwent at the age of 20 to ‘change her gender’ left her unable to breastfeed her baby.
The mother, who detransitioned four years later, says the surgeon never discussed breastfeeding with her before the surgery.
She hopes sharing her experience will help young, gender-confused girls, “many of whom are children today, who are not going to be able to have children of their own because they’re being sterilised”.
Irreversible
Her story formed the basis of a case study for Frontiers in Global Women’s Health.
The study’s author, Professor Karleen Gribble of Western Sydney University, said: “This is irreversible surgery it shouldn’t be undertaken lightly.”
Prof Gribble and her team wanted to flag up the implications of the surgeries “being done on young people who are not at a stage in life where they are even contemplating having children”.
She said: “There is not a good evidence base for such a surgery especially not on children.”
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