When I was a child and suffering from numerous mental health issues, I learned about transgenderism. Vulnerable and in distress, I was given false hope by the pseudoscientific idea that I could become a boy.

Encouraged by doctors that this could solve my issues and alleviate my unhappiness, I began a medical journey to make a “female-to-male transition” that left enormous physical and emotional scars. It did not solve my problems, but rather created new ones.