A man who underwent a ‘sex change’, but then had it reversed, has warned that gender clinics are too quick to act in cases like his.
Elan Anthony transitioned aged 19 to live as a girl, but returned to living as his birth sex aged 39.
Speaking to the Guardian, Anthony said he realised that “transition had caused more problems than it solved”.
‘Just two sessions’
He was referred to a gender clinic by a counsellor at his university and given oestrogen hormones after “just two sessions”.
Anthony said: “I started to realise that I could have dealt with my own issues so much better without changing my body because that has brought so many more difficulties.”
He is now studying psychology and says he finds it “emotionally taxing” because there is a large movement in the field “towards promoting and supporting trans rights and trans issues”.
“It sometimes can be difficult to be critical in any way of trans issues in that environment, but I am interested in helping people work with their dysphoria in whatever way possible”, he said.
Self-diagnosis
In a separate article in The Independent, feminist activist Jo Bartosch wrote about children who once believed they were transsexual but have since changed their minds.
Bartosch, whose feminist group believes gender and religion are “man-made beliefs”, said it is “ridiculous to suggest a boy who chooses to wear a dress is therefore a girl”.
She highlighted the case of Penny White, whose daughter “diagnosed herself with gender dysphoria” aged 12. But after turning 17, White’s daughter reverted back to living as a girl.
Irresponsible
Penny told Bartosch how she had been led to believe that she had to “affirm” her daughter’s feeling “or risk driving her to suicide”.
She now fears “there are many gender non-conforming kids being medicalised at young ages”.
Bartosch concluded: “There is compelling evidence to suggest that some of these children would, after puberty, actually come to feel secure and happy in the bodies they were born with, eradicating the need for serious medical intervention.
“It is irresponsible not to investigate this possibility – indeed, by not doing so we are in danger of failing children.”