Three disturbing stories of children that were allegedly preyed upon by greedy hospitals and doctors — and encouraged as minors to undergo gender-care treatment — were outlined in the Department of Health and Human Services’ bombshell “Wolves in White Coats” report Thursday.
Here are their stories.
Clementine Breen
Clementine was just 12 years old and anxious about her changing adolescent body, while simultaneously grappling with unprocessed trauma from sexual abuse years earlier.
Desperate for an escape, she discovered the idea of transitioning gender in an internet search, and thought it would be the perfect refuge for her puberty fears.
She confided in a school guidance counselor, who immediately reached out to her parents. “Within months,” HHS details, the counselor coordinated meetings to her social transition, which included explaining the concept of transgenderism to her classmates.
At her first medical appointment at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which was about an hour long, doctors told Clementine’s parents their daughter was “100% trans” and at a high risk of suicide without medical intervention.
Her terrified parents agreed, and she was placed on puberty blockers a month later, then testosterone at 13 before undergoing a double mastectomy at 14.
Clementine’s mental health cratered, culminating in a psychotic episode, and she began suffering from insomnia, disordered eating and fits of anger.
Not one of her doctors attributed her symptoms to her undergoing hormone therapy, instead loading her up with psychiatric drugs like Zoloft, Seroquel, Guanfacine and Hydroxyzine, according to the HHS.
Only once she started undergoing serious therapy for her condition did she realize her gender confusion likely stemmed from her sexual abuse, and she stopped taking testosterone at 18. But her body was left a wreck, full of pain and irregular menstruation cycles, and requiring estrogen to reverse the damage.
And once she started pursuing breast reconstructive surgery she began to face resistance from doctors — with people questioning her mental stability, and some even ghosting her and refusing to respond.
“She did not face this same scrutiny when seeking a mastectomy at 14,” the report read, also claiming she found therapist letters in her medical record which bogusly claimed she’d had gender dysphoria her whole life.
Clementine now studies theater at UCLA, and though she thinks of her self as doing well she still carries the scars of her experience.
“How can a child consent to losing fertility or the ability to breastfeed if no one checks whether she even understand what that means?” she said.
Soren Aldaco
Soren was also a teen when she began feeling distress about her body and gender identity.
Like Clementine and many others, she turned to the internet where she found communities which framed gender-transitioning as only “appropriate response” to her feelings.
And when she ended up talking to a doctor about the issue, Soren was placed on testosterone with an array of specialists from a therapist to doctors and surgeons treating her for gender dysphoria — while the teen wasn’t presented with any treatment options beyond a “sex rejection” model.
She began taking testosterone, and then received a double mastectomy to remove her breasts — only to begin suffering severe complications after surgery which left her in pain she said “I don’t think I’ll ever forget.”
“Despite these negative developments, providers did not initiate a structured reassessment of her treatment plan,” the report read, noting the support she received after her treatments was almost non-existent compared to the systems which readily pushed her into the life-altering decisions.
“Soren’s experience reflects the imbalance of care for cases like hers,” the report read. “While her pathway into sex rejection medicalization involved coordinated referrals, approvals, and interventions across multiple providers, the pathway out involved no comparable system of support.”
Luke Healy
Luke was just 10 years old when he began exploring his beloved anime and fantasy online, but found himself in the thick of an online community full of adults discussing transgenderism, according to the HHS.
Within three years Luke had become convinced he was girl, and when he went to his parents about it they took him to a counselor to discuss it.
“The only people who seriously asked what might have caused his distress were his parents,” the report read. “Meanwhile, institutional figures … treated his new identity as settled and moved quickly to affirm it.”
“Luke’s parents refused to consent to puberty blockers or hormones while he was still a minor,” it added. “Luke now describes their refusal as one of the bravest things they ever did.”
But by the time he turned 18 Luke still believed he was a girl, and now as a legal adult he began pursuing transitioning treatments.
He started with estrogen and began receiving consultations for surgical treatments — but all the while he slowly began to realize that the treatments were not easing his psychological stress.
“Each intervention led to pressure for further intervention,” the report read. “In his view, the model was built around escalation rather than resolution.”
And then he began to get suspicious about what doctors were pitching him — and how they were doing it.
“One doctor quoted him approximately $200,000 for facial feminization surgery. Another, he says, spoke to him like a car salesman while encouraging tracheal shave,” HHS said. “Luke came to realize he was being sold procedures, not psychological help.”
Instead of trying to become a girl, Luke instead focused on fighting the substance abuse problems he’d developed along the way — he quit drinking and using drugs, and in doing so found something oddly familiar about them.
“He recognized the same obsessive, destructive pattern in gender ideology that he had seen in addiction,” the report read.
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