Detransitioner Sues American Academy of Pediatrics for 'Civil Conspiracy' in Transgender Medicine
A Florida woman, who tried to transition from female to male at the age of 14, only to detransition back to female three years later, is suing the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), alleging its "collective failure to treat her properly in the name of a so-called 'gender-affirmative' model of care."
The New York Post reports Isabelle Ayala, now 20, also named her Rhode Island doctors as defendants in what has been called a first-of-its-kind lawsuit.
"I just really don't want this to happen to other vulnerable young girls," she told the outlet. "I don't want puberty to be the enemy. I don't want our natural biology to be the enemy."
In her 38-page lawsuit, she alleges civil conspiracy, fraud, medical malpractice, and gross negligence, lack of informed consent, and vicarious liability.
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Ayala told The Post she was sexually assaulted at a young age and began puberty at the age of 8. These are the two reasons she said that made her resent her femininity and think she was better off as a male.
At 14, she was assigned to a gender clinic and diagnosed with gender dysphoria by a doctor. According to the lawsuit, her physician decided she "would benefit from being put on cross-sex hormones" in a single visit that lasted less than an hour, the outlet reported.
Ayala's lawsuit claims her doctors overlooked her previous diagnoses of autism, ADHD, and PTSD and "falsely represented that cross-sex hormone therapy was the only treatment option available to Isabelle to effectively treat her gender dysphoria, as well as her anxiety, depression, PTSD, and suicidality."
At the age of 17, she attempted suicide and decided to quit the testosterone "cold turkey." Once off the hormones, she realized she wasn't male and that her transition had been a huge mistake.
According to the lawsuit, the hormone treatments have resulted in irreversible physical changes and she has suffered permanent damage. She still suffers from vaginal atrophy, unwanted body hair, and compromised bone structure.
"Isabelle is now twenty years old and longs for what could have been and to have her healthy, female body back," the lawsuit said. "The changes the testosterone has had on her body are a constant reminder that she needed an unbiased medical expert willing to evaluate her mental health and provide her the care she needed, rather than a group of ideologues set on promoting their own agenda and furthering a broader conspiracy at her expense."
Ayala filed her lawsuit in October, The Post reported.
"There was zero mental health diagnosis, zero psycho behavioral diagnosis, nothing other than simply taking Isabelle's word for what she needed," Ayala's lawyer, Jordan Campbell, alleged to the outlet.
Although other detransitioners have sued medical providers, Ayala's case is the first to target the AAP directly, according to The Post. The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and attorney's fees and costs.
So far, the AAP has not commented on the case.
Ayala tells her story in a new documentary produced by the Independent Women's Forum.
"What I find so interesting about Isabel is that she's a soft-spoken individual and not someone seeking out attention," IWF director of storytelling and executive producer Kelsey Bolar told The Post. "She's really doing this for the right reasons."
