The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13

So last week, I basically did my longest ever video in the history of Brett Cooper videos. I did a recap on Trump's first month in office, and a huge portion of that video was talking about his executive orders.
I think he has signed more executive orders in this first month than any president in history, and as you guys saw, I am a huge fan of basically all of them. But within this slew of executive orders with wide-ranging topics, there were four that addressed transgenderism, and I want to talk about those specifically today.
Well, not just them in general, but about one issue in particular. And those executive orders, you know, he did one that established that the United States only has two genders, which, you know, it's a shock that even has to be established.
He's also doing what he can to ban men from competing in women's sports. He is now keeping transgender members out of the military, and lastly he cut federal funding for the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.
And that is what I want to focus on today. And obviously there was outrage over every single one of these four executive orders, and it feels unlikely as Congress stands right now that any of these will be passed as bills, even though I would love them to, considering that every single Democrat in Congress voted against passing a bill that would keep men out of women's sports just last week.
And I want you to hear that again, every single Democrat. And that issue specifically, as we discussed last week, is not even controversial.
Studies have shown that 70% of Americans on a baseline believe that men, biological men, should not compete against women. And these people that are in Congress that are supposed to represent us, that are supposed to represent that 70%, overwhelmingly every single one of them voted no.
So I think that just kind of gives you an overview of where our government stands right now. And so what needs to change in order to push any of these bills through to make these into law so that they can't just be undone by another president for years from now? Well, in my opinion, people need to be hit in the face with the facts about these procedures and the lasting effects that they have on people specifically on developing minds, specifically on American children.
And the thing is, changing people's minds on this is not an impossible feat. It is happening in countries around the world, just not here in America.
Now in this episode, I'm going to be joined by my good friend Chloe Cole, and we're going to talk about why America is so ridiculously behind on this issue. We're also going to break down the recent bombshell studies that should horrify Americans and jolt our government into action if they weren't so cucked by their own freaking flawed ideology.
I also want to remind you guys that this is the last week to buy my exclusive launch merch. This is the merch collection that we created just for the launch, this launch period of the Red Cooper show.
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Now, in addition to those executive orders, obviously being a very relevant and pressing issue, this week also had Detransitioner Awareness Day. It was actually just yesterday.
And Chloe, who is a detransitioner and who you will hear from in just a couple of minutes, among a few others, traveled to DC for an entire week of meetings and events to share their stories and advocate for the protection of children and for the support that their community so desperately needs. So they're not getting from our government, from society, and most importantly and horrifyingly, not from the medical community.
And this is obviously especially important because of the legislation that Trump and the Republican Congress want to pass, but also because of what is happening around the world. And that is why this week is why I wanted to talk about this today.
I mean, guys, what I want you to know is that countries that are far more progressive than us, that were actually at the forefront of this issue many years ago, pushing this entire ideology, are now scaling back and realizing that it has been taken too far. That these awful experimental procedures and surgeries are actually not that great and not doing what they were promised.
And this is on full display in the UK. And guys, it is just so gratifying to see the scientists and the academics and the experts finally hold themselves accountable after so many years and acknowledge their own biases through these studies, through their reports, which is something that you would see regularly if you were a student at Peterson Academy.
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Again, that is petersonacademy.com slash Brett to get started and join Peterson Academy today. Now, the latest bombshell example of this accountability, of this self-awareness, of finally being honest about these procedures came out just a couple of weeks ago through the Oxford Journal.
They released their findings after studying over 107,000 patients with gender dysphoria and found that, yes, unequivocally, those who underwent sex change surgeries who went through with the entire medical procedures of transitioning faced higher risks of depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and substance abuse after undergoing those procedures. And this was released just on February 25th, 2025.
And more specifically, this study found that males with gender transition surgery were 120% more likely to have depression and 388% likelier to have anxiety than males who have gender dysphoria without surgical intervention. Gender dysphoric females were 56% likelier to have depression and 48% likelier to have anxiety if they had undergone gender transition surgery.
So obviously it is still an increase, but those numbers for men who underwent these surgeries, that is shocking. And obviously, as you saw, there was an increase for women, but that dramatic increase for men, that is horrifying.
And for anybody who has been paying attention over the last couple of years, who has been following and advocating for this issue, those numbers probably don't shock us at all. I mean, I saw this report come out and I was like, of course the numbers increased, obviously.
That is common sense because these surgeries and these procedures, they are a band-aid situation. They will never address the root problem.
And so of course there are going to be higher risks of depression and anxiety. And it's not just common sense that should tell us this.
There are other studies like this. I mean, last year, a Finnish study found that patients who proceeded to gender-affirming treatments did not have a reduction in mental crises or suicidal ideation.
That came out February 16th of 2024. They also found that usually, wow, there were underlying mental health issues that needed to be addressed in addition to gender dysphoria that might have caused gender dysphoria.
In 2019, this is another crazy example, a Swedish study was done. This is a study that is now very well referenced in the LGBTQ community, and they found a decrease in mental health treatment after medically transitioning.
But guys, less than a year after that report came out, that study, that key study that was now referenced everywhere that was used to push this issue forward, shoved in our faces, was officially corrected. It was reanalyzed, and the American Journal of Psychiatry came in and clarified that, quote, the results of the reanalysis demonstrated no advantage of surgery in relation to subsequent mood or anxiety disorder-related healthcare visits or prescriptions or hospitalizations following suicide attempts.
I mean, that is crazy. Again, nine months later.
Then, in 2024, an American study was finally released because all of this was done overseas that also confirmed all of this, but their sample size was only of 1,500 patients. So obviously it did not get the attention or the credibility that it probably deserved.
So basically we on the common sense side of this issue and all of the researchers have been saying this for years. We have been sounding the alarms.
People like Chloe Cole, like Riley Gaines have been sounding the alarms, but this new study from the Oxford Journal with its magnitude, with its scope, with its size, and its damning outcomes is pretty hard to refute. And my good friend Chloe, who you guys probably know is a teen detransitioner who started puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones at age 13, who then underwent a double mastectomy at age 15, agreed with all of this and she came on the show to share the validation that a study like this brings to her and her entire community.
I mean it really affirms like not only my own experiences with going through the entirety of detrench and especially the surgery but also that of all of my other detrenching friends who've also had these surgeries and these other individuals who've reached out to me and have gone through them. It's almost kind of vindicating that there are studies now that are showing the harms of what these surgeries do, not only physically, but also psychologically.
And it really takes down this narrative that these surgeries are beneficial to the patient, that they create better outcomes for mental health and overall quality of life. And I wanted Chloe to come on and I wanted you guys to hear her story and continue hearing her story because it tells you why these studies, like all of these reports, are so vital.
Because parents are literally told that their gender dysphoric children will die if their parents do not help them transition. Many parents are threatened into agreeing to these experimental procedures purely based on fear and lies from psychiatrists, from doctors, and most importantly from from the media.
This is what happened to Chloe Cole and her parents, and it is what famously happened to Elon Musk. This is why he cares so deeply about this issue.
Just take a listen. I was essentially tricked into signing documents for one of my older boys, Xavier.
This was before I had really any understanding of what was going on. We had COVID going on, so there was a lot of confusion.
And, you know, I was told, oh, you know, Xavier might commit suicide if he... That was a lie right from the outset? Incredibly evil.
And I agree with you that people that have been promoting this should go to prison. It was a complete lie.
They literally said you must agree to this because your son will commit suicide if you don't. I mean imagine putting that in front of a parent.
Obviously parents are going to go along with it. They're not going to think that it's a lie because why would doctors tell them a lie? Why would they use fear to push an experimental procedure on this innocent child? So I want you guys to know that because when you hear the media freaking out that Trump is killing trans children, that he's doing all this legislation that will kill trans people, that gender-affirming care is actually keeping trans people alive, I want you all to know that all of that is based on a lie.
That is what these reports are telling us. So when you see headlines like this from the ACLU, doctors agree gender-affirming care is life-saving care.
This is from USA Today. Gender-affirming care is life-saving, research says.
Why is it so controversial? Well, it's controversial because the science isn't really on your side. You might have a couple of doctors that are on board, but it is objectively scientifically controversial.
Like the jury has been out. We are now getting to an objective solution.
I have my opinions on it, but there is now becoming more of a consensus. It objectively has been controversial because you guys have been telling lies.
So gender affirming care saves lives is really an emotional fallacy that makes us easy, that makes parents and children easy to control and manipulate without having all of the facts. And so again, I have empathy for these parents.
It makes sense that so many parents would hear this from doctors, from the media, from specialists, and be terrified for their kids and go, oh my gosh, I will do anything that it takes to keep my child from dying. I mean, who wouldn't do anything to protect their child? But this is anything but protection.
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Now, even though all of these studies that I've referenced at the beginning of this episode are incredibly important, especially that recent one from the Oxford Journal, just because of how huge the sample size is, and it should be eye-opening for people around the world, they are still, in my opinion, missing a huge piece of the puzzle. Because at the end of the day, if you read these reports, if you read these surveys, and then you get to their conclusion, their conclusions are still flawed.
Like the way that they interpret this issue, the way that they interpret the data and propose a solution is still dictated by their emotional ideology and this idea that we have to affirm, we have to affirm. For example, in that 2024 Curious study that was done in the States with a very small sample size, their conclusion found that patients who have undergone gender affirming surgery are associated with significantly elevated risk of suicide, highlighting the necessity for comprehensive post-procedure psychiatric support.
Here we go, another one. In the Oxford Journal, this most recent one, they concluded that gender-affirming surgery, while beneficial in affirming gender identity, they're still propelling this lie that it's very good for affirming, that's very good for affirming, is associated with increased risk of mental health issues, underscoring the need for ongoing gender-sensitive mental health support for transgender individuals post-surgery.
This is where the science and the protocol is still inherently flawed. I mean, we have all of these studies saying the same thing, that these risks are increased, that the surgeries do not actually do anything, but make the situations worse.
And their response is not to address these experimental irreversible procedures that are obviously not working, but to say that they need more support after going through these surgeries that just clearly do not work, which in a way is still true. And we're gonna get to that, but that is not the real pressing issue at hand, as Chloe said.
I guess the culture in, around the, these studies and the research around this was more focused on prevention of cases like mine, prevention of regret, and mitigating the risk of detransition as much as possible. But this, of course, also doesn't have to be exclusive, because in her mind, in Chloe's mind, there should be a more holistic approach from when the patient comes in with gender dysphoria, with confusion over their bodies and their gender, and even after medical treatments, if they end up going through with it, like she did at 15 years old, because in her experience, after her surgery, when she started experiencing regrets and confusion about what she had just done to her body, she received nothing.
There was no support. These researchers, these doctors, these providers

don't really ask questions that are geared towards people like me or outcomes like mine of regret, of detransition, of choosing to go out the other way, and of this not being, of this potentially not being the right path. I certainly was not asked that by my own healthcare providers.
I was never followed up with about how I was doing emotionally, really. And when I would talk about my regrets and my negative feelings around the procedures that I'd undergone, especially the surgery, it was kind of treated like it was just a normal outcome or that it just wasn't significant.
So what I'm trying to communicate here, and what Chloe is saying, is that these studies are correct in a way that post-surgery care is necessary. And it's appalling that these young people, especially are just thrown out into the world with no support when they're dealing with regrets and confusion.
But that care, that real care needs to exist from the get go. And it needs to be care that is not wholly focused on affirmation, that doesn't just shove them in line for surgery, that again, we now know, does not work.
Transgenderism is not an innate characteristic that somebody has. But the further that you look into a patient's personal history, any trauma that they might have, especially stemming from their childhood, any attachment issues, any familial issues.
This is something that is completely psychological in nature. And this distress around one's body, around one's sex characteristics, is not just something that occurs in a vacuum.
We need to be giving these people real support with their mental health, not telling them that they are something that they aren't, but also leading them down this path that is going to lead them being sterilized, losing parts of their health and happiness and their ability to fully live their lives. And we need to be following a more holistic approach that's focused on the overall picture of their lives and their their overall health and towards their longevity and their their future when you hear people like chloe speak when you look at these reports like how how is this entire issue controversial it makes no sense i mean this used to be a psychiatric issue that would be addressed as a psychiatric issue.

Now there is just no nuance or even thought of prevention. It is just affirmation of an issue that is usually far deeper.
I mean, I think that for both sexes, it's a matter of psychiatric illness and distress. but for a lot of the women it's'd say that for a good portion of them, it comes from a place of normal pubertal or adolescent or early adulthood distress that just comes with growing up from a girl into a woman.
When you look at the personal histories of the men, especially, they tend to have high rates of having been abused in the past, of having familial difficulties. What we actually need to do for these patients is, first of all, to not affirm these issues that they're having with their identity and not lying to their faces about who they are, not letting them believe that the issue is their body rather than the issues that they have in their life that are making them feel so negatively about their their sex around these parts of their bodies.
But of course are those issues ever addressed? Are they talked about in the scope of transgenderism especially with young people transitioning especially with young women going through puberty? No of course not. We're all just supposed to sit back and affirm because that is the virtuous that is the morally correct thing to do and if we don't we are killing these people.
It is insane. Now the thing is guys, as I said at the beginning of this episode, in other countries, this is not such a crazy idea anymore.
Having nuance, focusing on prevention, they have caught up to the science. They're listening to the science.
They are seeing the facts and they have realized how insane this ideology has become. I mean, the United Kingdom and France both put restrictions on transitioning children back in 2022.
The UK has now updated their restrictions as of 2024. I would not be surprised if they updated them again after this Oxford Journal study.
Between 2020 and 2023, Finland, Norway, and Sweden all also put restrictions on transitioning children, which is hysterical in my opinion because those three countries, all of these countries, are countries that the left often louds and celebrates for their social welfare systems and their free health care and their inclusivity and their safety and their acceptance. And these are the exact countries that are saying, okay, yeah, guys, we kind of took it too far.
We need to scale it back. Meanwhile, America, that is supposed to be the beacon of common sense and reality, is still being insane.
And so obviously I wanted to ask Chloe her thoughts from personal experience about why she thinks that is. In the United States, we're a lot more politically motivated.
We're a lot more financially motivated. And those are the two biggest things that are why has become so pervasive in different industries in the US, especially in

healthcare, right? It's because it's become an ideological issue, the left has made into a human

rights issue, and it's also incredibly lucrative. It's a lot harder right now in the US to make

these big strides to protect our own children and young patients from being subjected to this. And I'm so glad that Chloe did not mince words in that statement, that she was so straight with everyone and it could not be more true and it could not be more disappointing.
She is right. Follow the money, follow the politics.
Those are the two reasons why this issue still exists and is so pervasive in America. And the response to all of these studies, or actually lack thereof, is proof of all of that.
This is willful avoidance that we are seeing in the states and it is doing irreversible damage to an entire generation of children. And of course in light of detransitioner awareness day, which again was just yesterday, we have to talk about the children who were experimented upon and then who, like Chloe, were completely left in the dust and left behind because that is truly what happens on a regular basis in this country.
And if you guys didn't know, while we're talking about all these other studies about post-surgery, all of that, there are no concrete studies on detransitioners, especially not detransitioning children like Chloe Cole. And in my personal opinion, this is partially because of that willful avoidance that we were just talking about, but also because much of detransitioning happens without medical interventions.
Like doctors aren't even seeing these patients, so they aren't counting. They are not being studied.
They aren't offered support or guidance in the first place like Chloe laid out, like all of these studies laid out. They don't usually get their surgeries reversed, and in many cases that is impossible.
They just kind of stop taking their hormones and they try to go back to living a more normal life and they socially detransition. And doctors just aren't involved.
They rarely see this take place and the numbers are not available which is such a travesty because Chloe said that this is happening every single day. And so doctors just aren't involved.
Doctors rarely see this play out and the numbers are not available which is such a travesty. Now another thing that Chloe told me which truly shocked me is that not only do we not keep records of this and not only do people often not go to the doctor for detransitioning but there is also no standard of care if somebody comes into detransition.
They don't even know what to do if you come in and you say I'm not happy. This is what she said.
Detransition isn't really recognized even as a phenomenon within the medical community. There's no standards of care.
There are not even any billing codes for doctors or nurses to use when dealing with those of us. There's just not really much that they can do in the first place.
Just how many children, how many young men and women end up coming back out of the system and having outcomes like mine. But what is so vitally important to remember is that just because doctors don't see them or won't see them does not mean that these individuals like Chloe do not exist.
We're kind of getting an idea with how many of us are kind of just like coming out of the woods and talking about our experiences in increasing numbers just online. Like there are I think tens of thousands, if not more, detrenched individuals who are on social media right now and on different platforms talking with each other and connecting over their experiences and trying to find help.
These individuals like Chloe, this entire community, especially of young people, they deserve attention and they deserve real care.

Not affirming care, but genuine holistic care.

They deserve to have their concerns and their regrets and their hopes heard at the bare minimum. And it's insane that when she went into the doctor and said, I'm not really happy with this, I'm confused, I'm regretting, they literally didn't even know what to tell her.
They couldn't direct her to anything, just said, oh yeah, that's kind of normal. That's insane that they just turn people away and say, yep, sorry, that's normal.
It is insane that that does not happen in the first place. But based on everything that Chloe has been saying, it makes sense because again, it's politics and money.
And these transitioners like her do not help either cause. They don't make the industry more money.
They don't push the ideology forward. And that is why it is so important that stories like hers are heard.
Like, I just want you all to realize that there is more attention and care and focus over whether we wear our retainers after we get our braces off than how you are doing in life after you chemically and surgically try to change your entire gender. That should not be the case.
That is certifiably insane and it begs the question of why. And so I know that I'm really hammering this issue hard.
I know that this is probably not the most pleasant episode and it's more of a doom and gloom thing, but like I said, there is a lot of hope. It's just not in the US.
Barely anything is happening in the US other than Trump's executive orders, which again, I'm not sure if this current Congress will be able to pass. Another good thing is that there are currently 27 states who have imposed restrictions or full bans on transitioning minors, but there does need to be something on a federal level.
This is a federal issue, but obviously that is still an uphill battle. So what needs to change in order to make that happen? Obviously, I think Americans are on our side.
70% of Americans think that men should be competing in women's sports. That would obviously make you think that the majority of Americans think that this is a ridiculous issue, a dangerous issue that has been pushed way too far, but our government is not listening.
Now, Chloe referenced all of the studies that we covered in this episode. She also covered one that we did not, which is the prolific Hillary Cass report out of the UK, and she said that we need one that is just as much of a bombshell right here in the US.
We cannot really base this and change people's minds off of a study that only has 1,500 participants. Even though that still was a shocking and damning survey, we do need something like Hilary Cass and like this Oxford Journal study.
A bombshell study that is all-encompassing that includes detransitioners in their story, one that is simply too big for people to ignore. And Chloe really believes that in addition to all of the advocacy work, all of the stories that she and so many others are telling, that that will be the way to change the culture in a massive way.
And I simply could not agree more. I think that she made an absolutely fantastic point.
But for now, for those of us who do not have the power to start a study that covers hundreds of thousands of participants and covers detransitioners and figures out a way to study detransitioners, for those of us normal people who just care about this issue, the most important thing that we can do is to continue sharing the stories of people like Chloe, to continue spreading this message. And another thing that I want you guys to think about and to consider that is possibly more important than anything else I have said in this entire episode is that you need to keep pouring into and supporting the people in your lives that are struggling.
Because real care, not affirmative social justice care, it begins at home, in our communities, with the people that we

touch on a daily basis. It is the kind of care that is truly loving, that is truly empathetic,

that is preventative, and actually addresses the root causes of all of these issues. And above all

else, that is what those of us as individuals who feel very small in this huge monster of an issue,

that is what we can focus on, and that is the change that we can make in the world.