3 female detransitioners suing doctors over experimental sex-change procedures that left them disfigured

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, July 27, 2023

Michelle Zacchigna

As The Christian Post reported earlier this year, an Ontario woman who previously identified as a man filed a statement of claim to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. The woman, Michelle Zacchigna, has accused eight doctors of offering her hormones and body-altering surgeries instead of addressing her mental health needs.

Zacchigna addressed the lawsuit in a February tweet, revealing that she had taken legal action in November 2022 against the Canadian healthcare providers that facilitated her transition. The Ontario woman described the lawsuit as a “card” that she had been “holding close to [her] chest for a while.”

According to a 2021 blog post written for the nonpartisan Gender Dysphoria Alliance, Zacchigna struggled with anxiety and depression as a child. She began to think her problems were related to her gender identity after researching the concept online.

In 2010, Zacchigna said a doctor she met through a Toronto-based support group called "Gender Journey” referred her for hormone therapy after meeting with her once for a one-hour appointment. After she started taking testosterone, Zacchigna later underwent a double mastectomy at the beginning of 2012.

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While the woman admitted her mental health improved for a brief period after taking synthetic male hormones and having her breasts severed, she recalled that, emotionally, she eventually “plummeted.” Zacchigna’s social anxiety and struggle to make friends continued, and, as a result of taking male hormones, she gained around 70 to 80 pounds.

Eventually, she stopped the testosterone injections, deciding that she no longer cared about her appearance. In 2018, Zacchigna had a partial hysterectomy, although she can no longer remember why she once thought the surgery was a good idea.

The year before the surgery, Zacchigna was diagnosed with various mental health disorders, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. She also learned that she was on the autism spectrum.

"Gender dysphoria wasn't really addressed in my assessment," she stated. "As such, I continued to identify as transgender — though as non-binary at that time. In my mind, since I had already made permanent changes to my body and figured I was always going to be seen as 'weird,' I thought I might as well just keep going."

"It's not so easy to admit to yourself that you have spent a decade of your life on a mistake," Zacchigna continued. "It's even harder to admit it to everyone else."

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Zacchigna had time for reflection, which allowed her to experience a “breakthrough.” She asked her loved ones to call her by her birth name again, and she began accepting who she is and started identifying as a woman.

While the detransitioner admitted that she is beginning to accept how her body looks after undergoing an elective double mastectomy and partial hysterectomy, the knowledge that she cannot bear children is “devastating.” Zacchigna confessed that she sometimes cries nonstop over what happened to her.

She warned that the "one-size-fits-all approach to medical transition" exposes vulnerable people like herself to "medical trauma." Regarding the trans community that once supported her, Zacchigna said those pushing it don't seem to care about the “collateral damage."