Florida Detransitioner Isabelle Ayala who went from female to male at 14 – only to reverse the treatment three years later – sues American Academy of Pediatrics
A Florida woman who transitioned from female to male at age 14 and then transitioned back three years later is telling her story in a new documentary, hoping it will make others think twice.
Isabel Ayala, now 20, is suing the American Academy of Pediatrics, claiming she was given testosterone after one 45-minute dose while living in Rhode Island.
She told the documentary makers she was glad she was never offered the operation, even though she would have wanted it and it would have ruined her life.
“I just really don’t want this to happen to other vulnerable young girls,” Ayala said.
She said doctors only looked at her for a few minutes before she was diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
“If I had been valued a little more, this would never have happened, but it took you 45 minutes to change my entire life and cause me irreversible health problems.”
Isabelle Ayala went from female to male at age 14; three years later she realized that she had made a mistake
She said New York Post she felt that the procedures were offered too early and too easily.
“I don’t want puberty to be the enemy. I don’t want our natural biology to be the enemy,” she said.
This documentary is part of the Independent Women’s Forum series called Identity Crisis. Ayala’s 12-minute episode, “Detransitioner Defying the American Academy of Pediatrics,” chronicles how she found the trans community online and latched on to the idea of transition.
She said she was sexually abused as a child and tried to escape.
“I decided to switch because of a number of unfortunate things that came with being a woman. And those things made me hate being a woman,” she said, adding that she first encountered the trans community at age 11 on Tumblr.
“This will cure me,” she recalled thinking.
Ayala said online forums and social media taught her to talk about how suicidal she was, so at age 14 she convinced doctors to help her. She is now suing them, claiming that she was used as a guinea pig.
Ayala was prescribed testosterone, which she injected herself
“I found out on the Internet that I had to convince (my doctors and family) that if they didn’t confirm me, I would kill myself,” she said.
“I was a healthy child,” she said in the documentary. “I was a physically healthy child.
Ayala claims that Dr. Jason Rafferty, chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on LGBTQ+ Health and Wellness, prescribed testosterone to her after her first visit.
She said she is taking legal action to try to prevent others from suffering.
“I really don’t want these doctors to practice anymore,” she said. “I don’t think they deserve the practice if they ignore the harm they cause.”
Kelsey Bolar, IWF’s director of storytelling and executive producer of the documentary, told The New York Post that Ayala’s story was compelling.
“What I find most interesting about Isabelle is that she is a quiet person and not someone who seeks attention,” Bolar said.
“She really does it for the right reasons.”
Ayala claims doctors ignored the fact that she has autism. ADHD and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder and depression when she was prescribed medication.
She now suffers from daily pain with symptoms such as vaginal dryness, burning and itching, which usually occur after menopause, and is unsure about her ability to have children in the future.
Ayala is suing the doctors who treated her and the American Academy of Pediatrics, an association of children’s doctors, which she claims knowingly misled the public by publishing and disseminating a fraudulent “political statement” about affirmative action health care that was widely perceived as authoritative leadership. for the treatment of children with gender confusion in the United States.
Isabel Ayala, now 20, is suing the doctors who treated her and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Dr. Jason Rafferty (pictured left), a Harvard graduate, was the author of the association’s 2018 policy statement, which essentially created a model of “positive care” in which the physician is guided by the desires expressed by the patient and recognizes, affirms and supports the stated identity an individual. Pictured at right is Dr. Michelle Forcier, one of the country’s most prominent figures in the field of “gender-affirming hormones and care plans,” who contributed to Ayala’s care.
Insurance premiums for puberty blockers in the US have doubled since 2017
She also told doctors that she was unsure about taking testosterone because she might want to have a biological child in the future.
Testosterone is a male hormone that stops menstrual cycles and reduces the ovaries’ ability to produce estrogen, meaning it can affect fertility and sexual function.
In November 2017, she attempted suicide.
She later returned to Florida in June 2018 and continued taking testosterone for about a year before quitting it “coldly.”
Without sex hormones, Ayala gradually recovered from her gender dysphoria and realized that she was not a boy.
Years of testosterone injections have left her with vaginal atrophy, physical pain, and the onset of an autoimmune disease, Hashimoto’s disease, which was seen only in men in her family.
“Isabelle suffered from vaginal atrophy due to excessive testosterone use; she struggles with excess hair on her face and body; it fights impaired bone structure; she is not sure that her fertility has been irreversibly impaired; she still has mental health issues and suffers from episodes of anxiety and depression that are exacerbated by feelings of regret,” the lawsuit explains.
Other detransition advocates have sued health care providers, but Ayala is the first to directly target the American Academy of Pediatrics.
They have not commented on her case, which was filed in October. She is seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages.