The following is an excerpt from Detrans: True Stories of Escaping the Gender Ideology Cult, a new book available now by former Daily Caller News Foundation reporter Mary Margaret Olohan. It is available for purchase here. The excerpt has been edited for brevity.
She was sixteen at the time, which meant that she needed her parents’ permission to get the surgery. “My mom was hesitant about it and had a lot of concerns,” Luka explained. “But she was also just kind of … bullied into going along with it, for lack of a better term.” Like so many other parents, her mother was told that if she blocked Luka’s transition, she would be endangering her daughter’s life. Luka’s father was trying to be very supportive of her decision, she said, and he also pressured her mother to support her.
Her surgery was scheduled in the afternoon, and she couldn’t eat or drink anything for twenty-four hours beforehand. It took place at an outpatient plastic surgery center rather than a hospital. This is a common theme among the detransitioners who have undergone double mastectomies. For those unfamiliar with outpatient procedures, it means that the patient typically goes home to recover on the same day the surgery takes place.
“The surgeon came in, and he was like, ‘Can you stand up?’ And so I stood up, I felt the needle in the IV move slightly under my skin, and I blacked out. A nurse had to hold me up, and I came to with a wet washcloth on my head before the surgery even started.” The staff was nice to her, Luka said, but she described the situation as more of an “in-and-out” vibe rather than supportive.
Luka can’t remember much about coming out of the surgery. “My surgeon wasn’t one of them that does the pose-for-a-picture-right-after-surgery thing,” she said, somewhat wryly. (RELATED: ‘Serious And Risky’: DCNF Reporters Describe Findings From Sweeping Exposé On Major Trans Health Org)
Transgender-promoting surgeons like Sidhbh Gallagher have gained prominence by taking pictures with the people they operate on and posting the pictures on social media. This public visibility has helped Gallagher to build “a thriving top surgery specialty,” as the New York Times reported: most of her patients find her on TikTok.
Dr. Gallagher’s fast-growing social media presence prompted a slew of watchdog groups to report her to the Federal Trade Commission in October 2022 for using her TikTok to “unfairly and deceptively” sway teens into getting sex-change operations. Gallagher posts graphic before-and-after pictures of her patients, including biologically female patients who get double mastectomies.
Her captions are peppy and excited, and she congratulates the patients for their transformations. “This is Masculoplasty plus — a technique we developed where we combine a reverse tummy tuck at the same time as top surgery to smooth out the upper belly,” she explains in one graphic post. “In some folks the scars tend to ride too high — this technique also allows me to get the scars down under-neath the pecs.”
Cover of ‘Detrans’ by Mary Margaret Olohan. (Skyhorse Publishing)
Another one of her pictures depicts her surgically crafting a fake vagina on a biological man — apparently after the first one
failed — using the man’s intestines. She matter-of-factly explains the process in the Instagram post. “Intestinal vaginoplasty is often considered a backup option for patients who have lost a previously created vagina,” Gallagher explains.
“While it may sound like an easy fix, there are a few things you should know before considering this procedure. “The appearance of the vagina created from intestine can look unnatural and may not blend well with the surrounding genitalia,” she explains. “Plus, discharge can be a problem, and there is no guarantee that the new vagina will auto-lubricate as desired. Additionally, this procedure involves working inside the patient’s abdomen, which can lengthen recovery time and require a longer hospital stay.”
Gallagher has started advertising that many of her biologically female patients are “choosing to add in torso masculinization,” whereby she uses liposuction at the same time as top surgery to remove their curves. This gives these biologically female patients a straighter, less feminine torso shape, Gallagher says, claiming that it doesn’t add much time to patient recovery.
Neither Gallagher nor her sister, who works for her at Gallagher Plastic Surgery in Miami, Florida, would respond to my requests for comment. (RELATED: ‘Keep The Voices Down’: In Unearthed Video, Doctors Discuss Putting Mentally Ill Patients, Including Kids, On Hormones)
Luka told me that much of her recovery was spent at her mother’s house. She can barely remember the first week after the surgery. But she did share that she had surgical drains in her sides and wore a kind of compression vest.
“After a week, we went back out to the doctor, and they took the drains out, which was the most painful process,” Luka explained with a shudder. “It felt so weird, and I hated it so much.”
For those who have not seen photographs of a young woman whose breasts have been removed for “gender affirmation” purposes, it is important to understand that the surgery leaves women with dark, thick scars across their chests and under their arms. These scars will never fully go away, though they may flatten and lighten over time. And for some patients, like Chloe, as we shall see, they may take years to heal — to stop being wounds.
These pictures are both upsetting and powerful. On the one hand, your average American who sees a photo of someone’s chest after “top surgery” is horrified and appalled that our medical system even allows this type of gender transition procedure to be performed, especially if the photo depicts a young person or a minor. (RELATED: ROOKE: Men In Dresses Aren’t The Only Delusional Victims Of Left-Wing Brainwashing)
It’s easy to believe the activist talking point that denying “gender affirming care” to minors is cruel. It’s another thing to be confronted with visual representations of what that nebulous “gender affirming care” actually is — so the photos can be instrumental in changing hearts and minds on whether these surgeries are actually “care” and actually affirming.
Your breasts, your ability to nurse: these things don’t grow or come back once they are gone. But not every young woman seeking “top surgery” is aware of that reality. In fact, a whole slew of gender clinics address confusion on this very topic.
Gallagher addresses this question in a “Pride Month” post on her Instagram: “Will the chest grow back after top surgery?” Though her post ends with a cautionary note stating that she is not giving medical advice and that patients should consult with their own doctor, Gallagher proceeds to tell her prospective patients that she gets this question quite frequently and that chest tissue doesn’t “naturally regenerate” after top surgery.
“It’s important to note that the remaining chest contour can change due to factors like weird fluctuations and hormonal changes,” she says. “Nevertheless, the transformative power of top surgery is truly remarkable! By removing excess breast tissue, we create an appearance that aligns with one’s gender identity, fostering confidence and self-expression.”
Copyright 2024 Mary Margaret Olohan. Excerpted by permission of Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
