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Female detransitioner says gender dysphoria must be treated like mental health issue
Christian Post ^ | 04/28/2021 | Leah MarieAnn Klett

Posted on 04/28/2021 7:40:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

A former trans-identified woman who has de-transitioned is stressing the importance of treating those struggling with gender dysphoria “the same way we would treat any other young person who's struggling with mental health issues” instead of allowing them to alter their bodies permanently.

Helena Kerschner, a 22-year-old de-transitioned woman who once identified as a transgender man, shared her story last Friday at the Q 2021 Culture Summit with the Center for Faith, Sexuality, and Gender President Preston Sprinkle.

As a child, Kerschner said there was “no indication” she would struggle with gender dysphoria. And then, at the age of 15, she became “really embroiled in this community online where everything was about social justice [and] ... gender all the time.”

“There were these hierarchical ways of looking at people, like it was bad to be cis, not trans, straight, white girl, and that's what I was,” she said. “I was a straight, white girl, and I felt that that was very bad at the time being in these communities.”

Her engagement with these online communities combined with her mental health issues prompted her to identify as non-binary, which eventually “snowballed into full-on trans.”

Though she transitioned with hormone replacement therapy from the age of 18, Kerschner has since de-transitioned with no lingering effects.

“I don't think I would have ever even considered seeing myself as a boy without the social aspects, especially if I hadn't joined these online communities specifically because there wasn't anything at the time, really in my school or in my community, that was influencing me. It was all online,” she reflected.

Kerschner said she soon found herself surrounded by others in her school and online community who decided to transition — and, like her, have since de-transitioned.

“Just looking back on it, it was the same pattern — just kids who are really struggling, kids who were very alone and isolated, maybe they didn't have a welcoming family life,” she asserted. “They just got caught up in these communities online and just started interpreting their emotional pain through the same lens together.”

Though acknowledging her story is unique to her situation, Kerschner stressed that she believes it's “unrealistic” and not “appropriate” to put decisions on children struggling with gender dysphoria that will “permanently injure” their bodies.

“The way my brain works now that I'm 22 is just completely different than it did when I was 18, and I still have more growing to do,” she said.

“I think that it's very important to protect young people, protect children,” Kerschner, who co-founded the Pique Resilience Project, emphasized. “They're the future of our society, and you only get one life and you only get one body. I think that should be the priority: protecting health and protecting people's future wellness, happiness, ability to exist in their God-given body. That would be the priority when talking about this.”

Opening the session, Sprinkle revealed that rapid-onset gender dysphoria — especially among biological females — has seen an increase in recent years.

“The term rapid onset describes the quickness by which many teenagers seem to be experiencing gender dysphoria,” he explained. “They didn't have any prior history of experiencing gender dysphoria and it seems like they kind of come out as trans or non-binary seemingly out of nowhere.”

Sprinkle, a bestselling author, professor and speaker, cited statistics from the United Kingdom that found a 5,000% increase among teenage females going to gender clinics seeking help with the incongruence they experience between their internal sense of self and their biological sex.

Another study found that many females struggling with gender dysphoria also battled mental health issues.

“There’s probably something more going on than simply society is more accepting,” Sprinkle said.

To those who believe rapid-onset gender dysphoria and social contagion don’t exist, Kerschner said her story and statistics prove otherwise.

“I totally believe that there's a social contagion. I experienced it like I said. I observed it happening. I look back, and I see it happening to so many people I knew at the time,” she proclaimed.

Those struggling with gender dysphoria have “a lot going on below the surface” and need to be treated with kindness and compassion, Kerschner said.

“There's a lot of comorbid mental health issues. There's a lot of depression, anxiety, self-harm, OCD, eating disorders,” she posited. “I think that we should treat these young people the same way we would treat any other young person who's struggling with mental health issues. We should be caring and loving to them. And we should get them help, and we [should] pay attention to the root causes of why they're feeling the way that they're feeling.”

“I don't think that potentially causing an endocrine disorder by giving someone cross-sex hormones or potentially surgically altering healthy body parts is an appropriate way to respond to someone who's having mental health issues,” Kerschner added. “I think that they deserve a lot more personalized specific loving care.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: detransition; dysphoria; gender; regreter; transgender; transition

Helena Kerschner appears next to Preston Sprinkle, the president of the Center for Faith, Sexuality and Gender, at the Q 2021 Culture Summit on April 23, 2021.
1 posted on 04/28/2021 7:40:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

I think they’re making this stuff up as they go.


2 posted on 04/28/2021 7:44:36 AM PDT by abbastanza
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To: SeekAndFind

I suppose bruce jenner could get a transplant if he de-transitioned.


3 posted on 04/28/2021 7:48:10 AM PDT by dynachrome ("I will not be reconstructed, and I do not give a damn.")
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To: SeekAndFind

Let’s see how much damage we can do by forcing nonsense into a carefully constructed system of logic. If nothing else, maybe normal people will notice us.


4 posted on 04/28/2021 7:48:29 AM PDT by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: SeekAndFind

This is crazy.

If person wants to cut off an arm or leg they put him in a mental hospital. But if he wants to cut off his penis they put him in charge of the nation’s healthcare system.


5 posted on 04/28/2021 7:50:16 AM PDT by Third Wheel
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To: SeekAndFind

Meaning, stop the fashionable pretending of late.


6 posted on 04/28/2021 7:54:55 AM PDT by Vision (Elections are one day. Reject "Chicago" vote harvesting. Election Reform Now. Obama is an evildoer.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Helena: Congrats on coming to your senses and going back to the sex God gave you. Realizing your DNA, chosen by God, can never be changed is a major step. Wishing you the best as you fight against those that think wrongly.


7 posted on 04/28/2021 7:55:21 AM PDT by upchuck (Corporations don’t pay taxes. They collect them. From us. ~ h/t Little Ray)
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To: SeekAndFind

The forces promoting transgenderism have a reckoning to endure. Thankfully, this girl had sense enough to back away from the lifestyle before being talked into self-mutilation. She is talking very sensibly now. She can be a powerful voice against this evil nonsense.


8 posted on 04/28/2021 8:04:39 AM PDT by RatRipper ( Democrats and socialists are vile liars, thdieves and murderers - enemies of good and America.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Because it IS a mental health issue.


9 posted on 04/28/2021 8:10:02 AM PDT by VTenigma (The Democrat party is the party of the mathematically challenged )
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To: SeekAndFind

Walter Heyer, an early male-to-female-back to-male, also claims that it is a form of mental illness.


10 posted on 04/28/2021 8:10:21 AM PDT by MHT
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To: SeekAndFind

“a 22-year-old de-transitioned woman who once identified as a transgender man...”
My brain’s starting to hurt here.


11 posted on 04/28/2021 8:16:50 AM PDT by Demiurge2 (Define your terms!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Stop the planet! I want to get off.

This is getting too confusing for my 69-year old brain.


12 posted on 04/28/2021 8:24:03 AM PDT by twoputt
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To: SeekAndFind

“Female detransitioner says gender dysphoria must be treated like mental health issue”

As it used to be, until the rest of society started catering to the delusionals as a form of pathological compassion, to the point of forcing all of society to buy into the delusion... or else.


13 posted on 04/28/2021 8:31:00 AM PDT by aquila48 (o not let them make you care! Guilting you is how they control you. )
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To: SeekAndFind

Sounds like a “partial” transition. Hormone treatments are somewhat reversible; I doubt that “bottom” surgery is fully reversible.


14 posted on 04/28/2021 8:58:53 AM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
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To: SeekAndFind

Most of the girls who do this are looking for acceptance. They are the invisible kids that go through life being just meh. In our celebrity/popularity driven cultural that a rough place to be when you’re 12-14 years old. Want a quick fix, say you’re Trans. Now you become somebody. The school revolves around you, you get noticed. There is a whole industry that swoops in to celebrate you. Pretty heady stuff for a former nobody. Stop celebrating the perversion you’ll get less of it.


15 posted on 04/28/2021 9:14:03 AM PDT by redangus
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To: SeekAndFind

Professionals who question the unscientific party line of supporting gender transition therapy could find themselves out of a job.
I’m a Pediatrician. How Transgender Ideology Has Infiltrated My Field and Produced Large-Scale Child Abuse.
https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/im-pediatrician-how-transgender-ideology-has-infiltrated-my-field-and-produced-large-scale


16 posted on 04/28/2021 10:08:53 AM PDT by tbw2
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To: abbastanza

Trans Activists Silence The Science So They Can Claim It’s On Their Side
https://thefederalist.com/2019/05/22/trans-activists-silence-science-can-claim-side/


17 posted on 04/28/2021 10:09:11 AM PDT by tbw2
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To: redangus

You get huge twitter asspats if you say you’re trans or homo.. For many, it’s basically all they live for.


18 posted on 04/28/2021 10:10:48 AM PDT by Shadylake
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To: dynachrome

I suppose bruce jenner could get a transplant if he de-transitioned.

Bruce still has his male equipment. He hasn’t had the ‘lopadickoffame’ surgery, so there’s no need to have the ‘addadicktome’ surgery if he decides to be a man again.


19 posted on 04/28/2021 10:29:46 AM PDT by ro_dreaming ("XX = female; XY = male. Who's the science deniers now?" - Me)
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To: ro_dreaming

I read that he did have his package removed.


20 posted on 04/28/2021 11:06:48 AM PDT by dynachrome ("I will not be reconstructed, and I do not give a damn.")
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