The documentary, “The Detransition Diaries: Saving Our Sisters,” directed by Jennifer Lahl, tells the dramatic and critically important stories of women who bought into transgender ideology and Planned Parenthood’s business before realizing it was causing them irreparable damage. As thousands of teenagers and young adults seek dangerous, body-altering hormones from Planned Parenthood — the nation’s largest abortion business — it is quickly becoming one of the foremost prescribers of cross-sex hormones while receiving $700M in taxpayer funding each year.
The video features the stories of Cat, Grace, and Helena — three women who previously chose to identify as males.
Cat and Helena took testosterone at ages 28 and 18 respectively, obtaining it from Planned Parenthood. Both women have since detransitioned, and have spoken out about the harms of transgender ideology and Planned Parenthood’s dangerous enablement of so-called “gender transition.” Multiple common threads run through the young women’s stories.
During puberty, Cat and Helena each experienced discomfort and self-consciousness with the maturation of their own bodies. While it is normal at times to feel uneasy about the transition, transgender advocates, teachers, therapists, and Planned Parenthood label such discomfort as a result of experiencing physical maturation, “gender dysphoria.” On the corporation’s website, it defines gender dysphoria as “distress, unhappiness, and anxiety related to the mismatch between your gender identity and important aspects of your body – such as your genitals, voice, or chest.”
Planned Parenthood staff and medical workers ignored the red flags in the women’s medical histories. By the time they visited Planned Parenthood, both had already struggled with anxiety, eating disorders, various kinds of self-harm, suicidal tendencies, and other emotional and social issues.
She hoped Planned Parenthood would offer real care. They didn’t.
Cat expected real counseling from Planned Parenthood to help her identify underlying issues. She had developed an addiction to drugs and alcohol and had dropped out of college by the time she called Planned Parenthood for a testosterone prescription.
“What you hope,” she said, “is that this person is an expert that will be able to listen to someone and recognize, you know, is this legitimate gender dysphoria or could there be some underlying issues.” Unfortunately, Planned Parenthood “just kind of automatically assume[s] that you are trans.” Planned Parenthood staff let Cat self-diagnose and gave her a prescription for testosterone, a Schedule III controlled substance, after a 30-minute phone call:
I called up Planned Parenthood because I’d been researching and I knew that they offered those kinds of services. And I thought there would be at least some kind of process to get the hormones or, you know, just some kind of psychological evaluation.
But instead, what happened is, I called Planned Parenthood; they told me that a doctor would be calling me back, and when they called me back, we had about a 30-minute phone conversation and then I was prescribed testosterone over the phone. And I went and I picked it up the same day.
Cat believes the Planned Parenthood staffer who prescribed her testosterone didn’t even look at her chart, because her medical history and comorbidities were not addressed.
“It was pretty clear she did not look at my chart because she would have seen some things that would at least be cause for concern because, like, I had a history of suicide attempts. I’d been, you know, institutionalized before, I’d been to, like, inpatient eating disorder treatment. The outcome of that conversation was, ‘Here’s your drugs,’” Cat said.
Although Cat requested a low dose of testosterone because she was a semi-professional singer and did not want to ruin her voice, Cat later found out that the Planned Parenthood staffer had prescribed her double the dosage usually prescribed to women in similar circumstances.
READ: Detransitioner was only 16 when Planned Parenthood gave her testosterone
They ignored other psychological issues and let her choose her own hormone dosage
Like Cat, Helena was able to obtain a prescription for testosterone after one brief appointment.
“Once I reached the point where I wanted to change by body to look more masculine, that’s when I decided that I wanted to go on testosterone,” said Helena. “Pretty much as soon as I turned 18, I made an appointment. I went to Planned Parenthood… just one appointment. Took about an hour.”
According to her medical records, Helena told the Planned Parenthood staff at her initial consultation that she felt depressed and suicidal, but thought testosterone would make her happy. These mental health issues should have given Planned Parenthood staff pause before prescribing her testosterone. Instead, Planned Parenthood staff let Helena self-diagnose, prescribing the teen four times the usual dosage of testosterone at her request.
“They said that I was a perfect candidate… and they prescribed me the testosterone on my first visit. I went to the nurse practitioner. She gave me a small packet with, you know, the informed consent information on it. I told her that I thought I needed a higher dose because I think I have excess estrogen because my thighs and breasts are big… I had just issues with my body. I don’t know why she listened to that, but she agreed and she said… ‘What dosage would you like?’ And I said, ‘What’s the highest we can go? And then she prescribed me the maximum dosage of testosterone.’”
Both Cat and Helena sustained irreversible, permanent damage to their bodies and lives following their detransitions. Both have altered voices, and Cat, as an accomplished singer, mourns the loss of her natural singing voice. Both women have deep regret for what they did.
Selling self-destruction
Libby Emmons, senior editor of the Post Millennial, was featured in the documentary, alongside Natasha Chart and activist Kelli-Jay Keen. “We do our girls a disservice when we lie to them and tell them they don’t have to be women. We harm them when we usher them into a world of adult sexuality with no reproductive consequences, without love, and, in the case of genital mutilation surgery, one that even lacks the potential for sexual pleasure,” Emmons said.
Planned Parenthood is one of those “selling it,” and harming young people in the process. It promotes dangerous sexual ideologies through its own warped brand of sex education, promotes abortions, and promotes so-called “gender-affirming care.” In doing these things, Planned Parenthood harms society as a whole – using taxpayer dollars. It is time to defund Planned Parenthood.
