Detrans: True Stories of Escaping the Gender Ideology Cult

by Mary Margaret Olohan

Transgender activists are all about speaking up—unless you regret your “transition” and have made the journey back. Then you’d better keep your mouth shut. But a compelling new book gives detransitioners a voice. And their testimony is unforgettable.

The number of teens and pre-teens persuaded they were born with the wrong body has exploded. Goaded by a toxic online “community” and assisted by teachers, doctors, and even their own parents, they are promptly set on the path of puberty-blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gruesome “gender-affirming” surgeries.

Media and activists insist that “transitioning” is the happy ending to these stories. But countless young people bear terrible emotional and physical scars. Adding to their anguish, the transgender community that once embraced them now wants to keep them quiet.

Now one fearless reporter, Mary Margaret Olohan, shares their stories. Based on in-depth personal interviews, Detrans exposes the unconscionable abuse these detransitioners have endured—manipulative therapy sessions, mental and emotional anguish, botched surgeries, and attempts to construct phantom body parts. Their testimonies reveal a truth so disturbing that transgender activists will do anything to hide it.

Detrans is indispensable evidence of the life-shattering power of gender ideology.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Psychology, Social Science

299 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 28, 2024

Reviews

[Tri · Rating 1 out of 5]

** Disclaimer: This review is focused on the book itself and its contents. This is by no means a review intended to belittle or dismiss the experiences of those who have detransitioned. **

This is now the 11th book I’ve read that solely focuses on anti-trans messaging, and I’m at this point where I feel like I’m experience my own Groundhog’s Day. Most of the issues with the book are ones I’ve already covered in my other reviews (check my ‘I read it so you don’t have to’ bookshelf).

To avoid redundancy, I’ll just make a list of the problems that I cover more in-depth in my other reviews and then discuss the unique points afterward.

The similarities include but are not limited to:
- Inclusion of many right-wing conservative groups, such as the Heritage Foundation, that have active campaigns against LGB rights and women’s autonomy (of which many detransitioners are)
- The suggestion that seeing trans people talk about their experiences online or watching/reading media with trans people in it will somehow hypnotize the viewer into being trans
- Suggesting that people with mental illness, are neurodivergent, or those who have suffered abuse can’t be trans or can’t advocate for themselves…even as adults!
- Using the same handful of detransitioners for interviews as all the other books (this isn’t a *massive* issue, but I find it frustrating that anti-trans books seem to only find the same people over and over for quoting)
- Making the argument that even adults shouldn’t make the decision to transition, even if they’ve gone through lengthy mental and physical health requirements to do so
- Citing persons and studies which have been thoroughly disputed and considered illegitimate
- The author describing the effects of hormone therapy like it’s a horror movie regardless of how these attributes are widely understood and often desirable to those transitioning
- Lack of acknowledging that many of the detransitioners mentioned have converted and that religion may have played a role in their desires not to be trans
- Pointing to online orgs and accounts that are either defunct, deleted, have members who have distanced themselves for some time now, or have far less traction than the author implies

There’s more similarities, but again most of it would be repeating what I’ve already mentioned in other reviews.

One unique point is the mention of a specific clinic’s before and after photos, of which the author describes the nipples of these people ‘hardly…human’, which was an incredibly weird thing to say. I saw the photos myself, and scrolling through I could only find two sets of photos where the nipples looked dark and not as aesthetically typical. The rest were perfectly fine, and there were at least a few dozen I managed scroll through before needing to continue reading.

Another unique point is the mention of a CVS pharmacist who had refused to give a trans woman her transition-related medication, and the author chastises the CVS for condemning the pharmacist. I find it odd that the author thinks that a pharmacist refusing medication to a patient on the basis of their own religion is a good thing. If one’s job requires the actions that are against someone’s religious beliefs, perhaps that’s not the right career choice for that individual.

There’s also the use of “transgender-promoting”, but the author doesn’t clarify what exactly that means or if there’s a difference between “promoting” being trans or simply a person who is trans existing publicly online and/or in-person.
Speaking of, for no sensible reason I can think of, the author brings up Dylan Mulvaney and her one (1) sponsored instagram post by Bud Light and treats it as if Bud Light was somehow smearing all the women of the world by having Dylan make a 30 second video on her page. It’s 2024, the clip was inoffensive and was posted over a year ago; If you’re still pissing your pants about it you gotta grow up.

“I believe the tide is turning…” The author says, although after reading so many books on the exact same topic, I have to wonder…is it? With the repetitive nature and the sinking amount of reviews of anti-trans books as time passes, I can’t help shake my head knowing the conservative push against LGBT people isn’t going to help detransitioners in the end.

These conservatives aren’t flying Chloe Cole across the US to advocate for accessible and affordable mental health care, The Daily Wire isn’t demanding that people take autism awareness seriously, The Heritage Foundation isn’t working tireless hours to work with schools on educating students about sexual violence amongst themselves and from adults and where/who to report to, Mary Olohan isn’t pleading with parent readers to keep an open mind when their child is expressive with their masculinity/femininity.
No, the end goal isn’t to help people follow along the path that best suits them; The goal is to push LGBT people back into the dark of the closet and quietly close the door.

[Fred Klein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book I've read called "Detrans". This one also provides important information about the transgender social contagion and the lies being perpetuated by the media, left-leaning politicians, health care providers, and, of course, the transgender movement. How many times do I need to be told that there's a difference between sex and gender, and that "gender-affirming" care must be provided or the people seeking it will commit suicide? It's all lies, and this book drives home that such "care" is a money maker. It is now the subject of multiple lawsuits by detransitioners, and I hope that this is the death knell for the transgender movement, which is already being rejected in Europe but, unfortunately, the USA is still behind.

The way this book is organized could be confusing at times. It jumps around between the stories of several detransitioners by subject, and I had to go back and remind myself which person was which. Perhaps it could have been organized by detransitioner, telling that person's full story rather than breaking it up by subject.

My hope is that one day a journalist who is not associated with conservative media will cover this subject matter with curiosity and skepticism rather than preconceived acceptance of the transgender narrative. Unfortunately, when these types of books only come from conservative writers, it's too easy for people to dismiss them. At least this author did not do what Matt Walsh did in his book, which was throw in a few jabs at liberals on other issues when it was completely unnecessary to the subject matter of his book.

[Frrobins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a lifelong liberal and a lifelong Democrat. I also work in mental health. And I hate to admit when my party is wrong about something but what I am seeing terrifies me greatly. In the last few years I've started working with a group of people that people on the left believe do not exist or attempt to minimize: detransitioners. I know the lies that some on the left spreads about them are not true. No one is right all of the time, and no one is wrong all of the time either. Life is complicated and messy like that.

This is a good look at several women (and one man) who are similar to people I have worked with. I know some liberals will call out guilt by association with alliances these people have had to make to have their voices heard. But we must try to listen to people who are trying to tell us about a problem we are ignoring and ask what we can do to make things better.

This is a nice compilation of the lived experience of several people who detransitioned and a scary indictment of the mental health profession and medical system. I've seen enough to believe that we are experiencing one of the greatest medical scandals in history and it is only by speaking out that we can start to fix this. Please consider reading this book with an open mind.

[Lisa Shultz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third book I have read on the topic of detransitioners or detransition. The stories are tough to read, and I am still amazed that the public seems largely unaware of this group. Detransitioners have valuable insight into the experience of trans. It also seems that doctors and therapists or any practitioner involved in care that is only affirming would want to broaden their understanding of what can go wrong when a kid is placed on a medicalization conveyor belt. Does the medical profession no longer study adverse effects of drugs and elective surgeries? What is the story behind those who regret starting on cross-sex hormones and undergoing gender modifying surgeries? I wish more people would look into it. The kids in this book deserved better care than they received, and I hope others will learn from them by reading this book.

[Abigail Westbrook · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a heavy book and left me feeling heartbroken for the women whose stories are covered in detail, and others like them. Though necessarily graphic and explicit in places (not for the squeamish!), these are stories that need to be told widely. Other young people who are struggling with their identity deserve to know the full impact of the decisions they make, and policy makers need to be aware of what “gender affirming care” really involves. The author likens LGBTQ culture to a cult with good reason, and urges readers to look at the financial implications of hormone therapy and surgeries. Though the writing style could be a little more polished and succinct in places, this is an informative book that we all need to read and discuss - and to share with our older teens and young people as well.

[Kevin Keating · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basically a book detailing the events of 4-5 children who were convinced they were transgender and then who went ahead, as children, to have surgery done on themselves. Parents who should have known better were convinced by a rigged system to have their kids mutilated. They were not given much information about what could go wrong, etc. They are all suing at this point. It was a little hard to keep track of who was who, but you generally got the point that they were all abused.

[Ari Damoulakis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could someone please message me or in the comments leave me books that counter this? I mean definitely academic, but also personal stories. But please psychologists, the science, etc.
So I will first tell you how I found and read this book and why I think it could be flawed.
I was reading some articles about Maga and they were talking about how Maga uses a very small minority of people to go on speaking tours, and it mentioned these people, this book, plus another book written by a Jewish psychiatrist who isn’t part of the main body of paediatricians in America.
(I did not specify Jewish as a negative way, but, like I will explain, does her religious belief skew her judgment?)
During Apartheid, and even now, many churches and psychologists practice gay conversion therapy.
As far as I know, this has now been accepted as barbaric, does not work for the most part, and there are many stories, and I myself suspect a person from my old school who was gay, couldn’t reconcile it with his Christian faith, went to conversion therapy and I suspect that that unfortunately played a part in his suicide.
I don’t know much about the Trans issue, it only started becoming a thing once I left university that the university did start making things inclusive to Trans people and I am now confused if it is just a very small minority as some say, or if the internet and raising awareness are really helping kids to really become what they feel they really are.
Having said all that, in one of my classes my professor tried to explain to us the difference between sex and gender.
I didn’t understand it then, and I still don’t understand it now.
But these Maga people, if a person wants to change gender, it should have nothing to do with them.
Is the Maga idea of dealing with transgender people harmful and evil like the gay conversion therapies used by their forefathers?
I have my suspicions, but I don’t know, and that is why I want to read books by pro-Trans psychologists, scientists, etc and research and articles not written by people like Focus on the Family where the answers are predetermined so one can believe that their researchers are probably skewed and totally worthless. The only point I will agree on is, if it is true that a man who transfers to a woman has an unfair advantage in sports like Mma, boxing, weightlifting, rugby etc then I don’t believe they should be allowed to compete against women. Maybe there could be a third category or some other solution.

[Julia Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heart breaking stories, that need to be told.

[Tracy Risley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heartbreaking.

[Leib Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Review
Detrans
5/5 stars
"Old wine in new bottles; Readable and interesting"

*******
I would consider this book as a continuation of two other excellent books about the transgender hysteria:

1. Abigail Shrier's "Irreversible Damage" detailed the way in which it is a social contagion: 99% of people that wanted to change gender before were males, but now the number of males and females are roughly equal. But, this book talks about three specific females instead of abstract, faceless ones.

2. Miriam Grossman's "Lost in Transnation" detailed the fact that there are actual medical procedures that make this true. Things that require surgery and anesthesia, and therefore involve some amount of risk. This book talks at greater length about the gruesome experiences of three actual females that did this.
*******

The events in this book seem new, but really they are just so much old wine in new bottles.

Theme 1: Figuring out what is a medical treatment. (Lobotomies used to be a standard medical treatment for many types of mental illnesses. Bone marrow transplant used to be indicated for HIV. And any number of other gruesome examples.)

So, the topic of the hour is gender transition. And they will have to be another people who realize that it's not like it appears on TLC and enough lawsuits will have to be pressed before the procedure is realistically understood. All three of the subjects of this book have open lawsuits, and I really believe that the court system IS going to be the final arbiter of this.

Theme 2: People join some type of mass movement because they want to be free of an unwanted self. Hoffer observed this about seven decades ago. ("On the other hand, a mass movement..... appeals not to those intent on bolstering and advancing a cherished self, but to those who crave to be rid of an unwanted self.)

So, IN THIS PARTICULAR CASE you have all of these people with various types of mental illness (particularly autism) that think that if they just change their gender, on the other side of that transformation will be the person that they want to be. (There are resonances to black jailbirds who decide that they're going to convert to Islam/ Hebrew Israelism/ Hotepism because they will leave behind their low IQ / criminal nature and on the other side of that transformation then they will be respected and successful people.)

Theme 3: Bored/over-pampered white people killing themselves / each other in service of some bizarre idea. (What was The Inquisition about? For that matter, what about the First and Second World Wars?)

Honestly, I see this at least twice a day just in real life. So, I'm pretty anesthetized to it at this point.  (What CAN'T be turned into self-actualization therapy for Bored White People?)

In this way, the book doesn't add that much value.

Theme 4: Word redefinition / bowdlerization.

So, here, vaginal atrophy/hormone induced rage / side effects from the creation/maintenance of a faux vagina are all redefined as "gender confirmation surgery." Of course, puberty is a " disease" to be treated.

(It's kind of The way that a baby is redefined as a "fetus"  or abortion is "health care.")

Apparently, anything can come into existence in reality if you just define it that way!

Theme 5: Before we know what medical treatments work, those that don't work have to be falsified by experiments involving human lives. And it is usually poor/less fortunate people that are the experimental material.

The Tuskegee experiment was done on black people.

Yesterday.

This experiment is being conducted mostly on vulnerable/mentally ill people.

Today. (It's just that it is the Washington University Transgender Center at St Louis Children's Hospital in lieu of Tuskegee. So be it.)

Theme 6: Medical establishment corruption. This has been shown to be the case in best selling books such as Nina Teichholz's "Big Fat Surprise" or Jason Fung's "Code" books. Or, really any book that details the way that false ideas become entrenched through professional societies.

*******
Verdict:

Recommended

The book is expensive, but it is worth the read. And it does give business to a conservative publishing house that will say what others will not.
*******

Of the book:

-11 chapters over 227 pages. 11 pages/per
-The whole book can be read in an afternoon
-326 references (56 were phone interviews; 64 "ibid" citations) It works out to about 1.5 sources per page, and that is forgivable because this is meant to be documenting something that happened in real time and through the words of the subjects.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Few actually give a shit about the human factor...Most only care if their 'side' is right." Chapter 8

I don't know if this detransitioner meant to summarize the entire trans debate right there, but he did so aptly. One of my main issues with most books written on the subject is how conservatives write about it. Rather than caring for the young people caught up in the movement and trying to reach them where they are, books like Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters bemoan the loss of beauty and fertility, as if that's all a girl is worth.

This book, however, puts these young people and their struggles front and center. From chapter one, it's clear that each young woman's transition was preceded by some major life event that caused them pain. They are treated as people, given sympathy and allowed to acknowledge that they needed help -- help they never got. The same goes for the young male transitioners who appear later in the book. Olohan deftly guides us through the stages of their transitions and detransitions, and finishes the book by asking her subjects what they needed at the time and what they would say to themselves in hindsight, neatly capping off the narrative. It's true that there is still some conservative handwringing about the loss of femininity and motherhood, but most of that appears to be coming from the young women themselves, not the author projecting it onto them.

While the author is, as usual, more conservative than I (why did she quote Elon Musk, of all people?), this is still a worthy read on a current topic. There are only going to be more stories like these in the years to come.

[J Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. First, can we let go of criticism against the author’s political leanings and religious convictions? I am an atheist, a homosexual and a liberal and I applaud the author’s decision to publish these remarkable stories that desperately need to be heard.

I am grateful to the Detransitioners who found the strength and courage to tell their stories.

Not that some of us haven’t been following some of them for some time but this book is unique in its rawness and candour. I don’t know how anyone cannot feel overwhelming empathy after hearing from many young people who have been irreversibly harmed by gender ideology. My hope is that it encourages more Detransitioners and Desistors to step forward and for more people to speak out against the medicalization of children.

While this book may not be the level of journalistic excellence of, say, Helen Joyce or Hannah Barnes or the fine mind of Kathleen Stock, it is nonetheless an essential read for anyone interested in the subject of Gender Ideology and the harm caused by it’s indoctrination in Western societies.

[metimoteo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horrifying at times! Having read Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier, this seemed like the logical next step in learning more about the social contagion that has gripped an overwhelming number of girls. I've witnessed firsthand biological girls as young as six identifying as boys in my work as an educator. I've had to go along with this madness, knowing full well that if I don't affirm their choices I won't have a job. I pray this book will open more eyes and bring about a shift in our collective thinking. I feel like we're swimming up a waterfall, however.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

God bless people like Chloe, Helena, Prisha, Luka, and others for sharing their harrowing stories about being sucked into the transgender cult and their bravery for repudiating it. I applaud Mary Margaret Olohan for telling their stories with sensitivity, and I applaud Matt Walsh for being at the forefront of this attack on our children.

[Lynnette Robinson-Knapp · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was eye-opening into the movement of detransitioners that I believe is a voice not being listened to. They suffer, too, and their stories need to be heard as much as anyone else's. insightful into policies and statistics surrounding this issue and someone the hidden cover-ups were shocking to read

[Nat Evers · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hard book to read but important. I wasn’t expecting it to be as graphic as it is—primarily regarding gender transition surgeries—but it is really helpful and necessary. It provided a lot of insight into the unknowns and the unmentioned parts of the trans movement.

[Michelle Ule · Rating 4 out of 5]

A painful book that describes--through their own words--what people have endured when they changed their minds.

It was hard to read.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well-researched and informative.

[Susan Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful stories and message but the writing could really use some refining

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall I think this book is closer to 3.5 stars. The content is good, I just don’t think it’s written in the most enjoyable way. But I think it’s an important topic that needs to be discussed.

[JD JudyDanielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could have highlighted the entire book!
The Truth is the Light
GOD Bless and protect the children and those in need

[Lynette Karg · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories are heart wrenching and tragic and are so completely unnecessary. How many people will be irreparably harmed before we wake up from this madness that is gender ideology?