Back in 2016, Milo was celebrated in the MTV documentary Transformation, at the start of her female-to-male gender change, trying out Hawaiian shirts and saying she felt ‘invincible.’
Seven years later, and Milo has returned to the screen, as a female again, with a YouTube post about bitterly regretting a transition that’s left her scarred, hairy and most likely infertile.
‘It turned out to be a big mistake,’ Milo says in the clip, which went online on Wednesday.
‘I keep thinking about how, if I ever want to be perceived by society as a woman, I now have to do vocal training, and I need laser to get rid of my facial hair. But I’m just so tired.’
In recent weeks, Milo has stopped taking testosterone and regrets a transition that left her with painful medical problems
In MTV’s 2016 documentary, Milo’s mom, Kristin, said she was told that trans kids kill themselves unless they’re supported by their parents
DailyMail.com cannot verify Milo’s account, but her story echoes those from the growing number of teens who speedily make ill-conceived decisions to change gender, and later experience regret and medical problems.
When Milo appeared in the MTV documentary, she became a poster child for a transgender movement that was, back then, new to most Americans and not the hot-button political issue it is now.
Aged 16, she was one of six trans and non-binary young people from Los Angeles who posed for the camera and got a wardrobe and style makeover.
Milo had started receiving weekly testosterone shots and had changed her sex on official papers.
‘I cannot imagine living my life as female,’ Milo said in the show, wearing a plaid shirt.
Milo described the ‘amazing feeling of relief that I get from thinking that never have to do anything feminine again for the rest of my life.’
Sitting beside him, Milo’s supportive mom, Kristin, described the ‘horror stories’ she had heard about trans kids committing suicide.
In hindsight, those comments from Milo and Kristin were red flags.
Today, many parents complain that doctors and therapists bully them into affirming their child’s decision to transition by suggesting that, without support, they would likely take their own lives.
Now Milo says she’s ‘ashamed’ of the documentary and ‘can’t bear to watch’ it.
Months after it was filmed, Milo had ‘top surgery,’ the surgical removal of her C-cup breasts.
Doctors gradually upped her testosterone dose. Over the years, it caused her vagina to atrophy — a common symptom of female-to-male transitioners, who experience dryness, irritation, and bleeding.
Due to the discomfort, last year, aged 21, she underwent a hysterectomy.
‘I kind of just didn’t care about my reproductive organs,’ she said in the video post.
Aged 16, Milo became a poster child for a transgender movement that was, back then, new to many Americans
The documentary was classic MTV, endorsing and affirming the transition of its young protagonists
‘In my head, I thought: “I don’t need these organs because I’m a man.'”
Eight months later, she was back at the doctor.
Her ovaries had not been removed in the hysterectomy, but one of them had twisted, ruptured and ‘died,’ she said.
The other ovary ‘might be healthy,’ she added.
Amid these mounting medical problems, Milo stopped taking testosterone this month.
She complains about mood swings, her receding hairline, deeper voice, chubby features, and hairy belly that needs regular shaving.
‘I’m a lot fatter and uglier than I used to be,’ she said.
Milo looks back and accounts for her teenage mistake.
She says she was vulnerable, autistic, shy and socially awkward — all hallmarks of adolescent girls who come out as trans.
‘I had these huge breasts,’ she said.
‘I just hated how I was seen. I didn’t like how I was looked at by boys. It made me very self-conscious.’
She found radical gender ideology online and came to believe her boyishness was really gender dysphoria.
Doctors and therapists affirmed the change with hormones ‘fast’ and ‘easily,’ she said.
‘What I’ve done to my appearance and my body has almost been a survival tactic or a form of protection against unwanted attention from men,’ she said.
Trans people inject hormones to change their appearance to match the sex they identify with
The scars on the chest of a biological female patient one year after a double breast removal
The number of young Americans who experience gender dysphoria and seek puberty blockers, hormones and even surgery has shot up in recent years.
Prescriptions for puberty-blocking drugs among under-18s doubled between 2017 and 2021, while scripts for hormone therapies have seen a similar rise, reports from health insurers show.
The rise is much more pronounced among girls. The number of top surgeries performed on girls under 18 has risen 13-fold in the past decade, says a study from California.
Advocates for gender-affirming care, as it is known, say the rise is due to more awareness of gender dysphoria and support among clinicians.
But some experts, conservatives, and parents warn of an ideologically-driven fad.
Republicans have passed laws against sex-reassignment care for children in 20 states this year.
Many have been challenged in the courts. A federal judge struck down the Arkansas law as unconstitutional in a landmark ruling on Tuesday.
It’s not known exactly how many people change their minds and de-transition, but estimates range from between 1 and 25 percent of trans people.
Detransition Subreddit, a popular online forum, has some 48,100 followers.
Against this backdrop, Milo says she doesn’t want her ‘story to be politicized.’
‘I believe that trans people obviously do exist. And there are hundreds, thousands, or millions of trans people who did transition and felt like it was the solution, and now they’re much happier,’ she said.
‘For me, it wasn’t the solution.’
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk