Chloe Cole, 17-year-old girl who de-transitioned from a boy has warned against letting children change gender.
Cole opened up about how taking puberty blockers and having surgery ‘irreversibly and painfully’ damaged her body from the age of 13.
She said it has left her unlikely to be able to have children and unable to breastfeed if she can because she had a double mastectomy.
She also told how she could be at risk of certain types of cancer – such as cervical cancer – due to her invasive treatment.
Chloe revealed her trauma in heartbreaking testimony during a hearing on reimbursements being made to those seeking hormone therapy in Florida.
It comes after Governor Ron DeSantis last month moved to ban transition therapies for children and revoke Medicaid support for trans adults’ treatments in the state.
The Republican state leader backed a letter sent by the state surgeon general , who DeSantis appointed to his post in February.
Joseph Lapado urged Florida’s Board of Medicine establish a new ‘standard of care’ for treating minors considering a transition.
Chloe, from Central Valley in California, told a hearing of Medicaid officials in Tallahassee on Friday: ‘No child should have to experience what I have.’
The teen said: ‘No child should have to experience what I have. My consent was not informed.’
She said therapists told her prior to transitioning she did not understand the ramifications.
At one point, she said: ‘I was unknowingly physically cutting off my true self from my body, irreversibly and painfully.’
Chloe added: ‘That realization, actually, was one of the biggest things that led to me realizing that this was not the path that I should have taken.’
Later, she was asked what her advice to the public would be. She replied: ‘Do not transition your kids.’
The youngster was ‘medically transitioned’ between the ages of 13 and 16, having her mastectomys at 15 in June 2020.
She was also taking testosterone and puberty-blockers and started going by the first name Leo.
Chloe has previously spoken openly about her transition, saying she first came out to her parents at 13.
Earlier this year, she told the New York Post it was her exposure to LGBTQ+ activism on Instagram at age 11 that she pushed her toward transitioning.
She said: ‘I started being exposed to a lot of LGBT content and activism.
‘I saw how trans people online got an overwhelming amount of support, and the amount of praise they were getting really spoke to me because, at the time, I didn’t really have a lot of friends of my own.’
Chloe said she was still waiting to find out if her testosterone injections, that were administered by her mother, have left her infertile.
When speaking about her mastectomys, she said it was a ‘was a very graphic process and it was definitely something I wasn’t prepared for.’
She added: ‘I’m still in the dark about the overall picture of my health right now.’
Prior to undergoing in mastectomy, Cole told Common Sense News she met with a therapist and a gender specialist before meeting a surgeon.
Chloe told the website being in class learning about the bond between mother and child that comes with breastfeeding helped to change her mind.
In May 2021, she said she stopped taking her testosterone injections. Cole her senior year was rough as she de-transitioned, saying ‘the gay side of my school hated me.’
But there was a silver lining in the shape of a new boyfriend, who was from two towns over. Chloe said: ‘I genuinely think he was a gift to me from God.’
She added: ‘I was looking for a niche to fit in and a sense of fulfillment’ bot now she says she doesn’t ‘really believe in gender identity at all.’
Chloe Cole’s Transition and De-transitioned Journey: Timeline
2016: Chloe said that she became exposed to transgender activism at age 11 on Instagram and Tumblr which influenced her thinking on her own gender.
2018: At age 14, Chloe began taking puberty blockers and testosterone injections, that were administered by her mother. That same year she begins going by the name Leo.
June 2020: Chloe goes under the knife for the first time at 15 when she has a double mastectomy
Almost immediately, she regrets the surgery as she was confined to her bed for that summer as she healed from her surgery
May 2021: Following a biology class during which she came to the realization that she would never be able to feed her baby, Chloe said that she stopped taking testosterone injections
