At age 13, Helena Kerschner began experiencing severe depression, self-harm, and an eating disorder as a result of childhood trauma. She began retreating from family and society and immersed herself in internet forums that claimed if she didn’t fit in or didn’t like her body, she must be “trans.”
Even though Helena had always been a “girly girl,” loving dresses and dolls, online LGBTQ groups informed her that if she just “transitioned” into a male, her emotional problems would resolve.
Believing herself to be a “transman,” Helena sought help from a local Planned Parenthood clinic as soon as she turned 18.
There was little to no medical diagnosis or evaluation at the abortion mill turned gender clinic. After just one 20-minute meeting, the Planned Parenthood nurse practitioner allowed Helena to decide how much of the cross-sex hormone drugs she should be prescribed.
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Helena told the nurse she believed she had higher estrogen than most girls, citing the size of her thighs and breasts as evidence. The nurse never bothered to perform a blood or endocrinology test to assess her estrogen levels. Instead, the nurse asked what dose she would like, and Helena said, “Well, what’s the highest we can go?” And so, the self-injections began every day at 100 mgs of testosterone.
“A girl’s testosterone should never be over 45 ng/dL,” says Miriam Grossman, M.D. But girls on testosterone injections have levels up to 700 ng/dL. “Their brains are exposed to these abnormal levels during the most critical time of brain growth and restructuring since the womb.”
This creates significant mental and physical disorder in the patients, and often permanently sterilizes the patient, rendering them unable to bear future children even after the gender dysphoria has resolved, according to Dr. Grossman.
STOP Planned Parenthood’s plans to sterilize an entire generation.
As the cross-sex hormones kicked in, Helena’s life spiraled out of control. “I was kind of possessed by something. I wasn’t myself anymore,” Helena says. “Any emotion would turn into extreme rage. When I would get angry, I felt like hurting people or breaking something. And so … the only way I knew to control that was to hurt myself. I just couldn’t control myself. … My life became a total disaster. … I just felt like a monster.”
Helena struggled with rage and self-harm for 17 months. Not once did Planned Parenthood staff advise stopping the cross-sex hormones that had driven Helena to the brink of insanity.
Helena wound up hurting herself so badly that she was rushed to an emergency room and admitted to a psych ward. There she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and psychosis. She was unable to function or do anything productive — until she stopped taking testosterone. Then, “All these symptoms went away, and I was myself again.”
Now 24, Helena is “on a mission” to expose these extreme dangers.
“There’s a lot of depression, anxiety, self-harm, OCD, [and] eating disorders” among trans patients, Helena says. “It’s just devastating to, especially from a young age, be lied to by adults at school and by medical professionals, and told that your body is wrong, you need to change it, you need to get hormones, you need to get surgeries. That’s devastating for a young person.”
Helena adds: “I think that we should treat these young people the same way we would treat any other young person who’s struggling with mental health issues. We should be caring and loving to them. And we should get them help, and we [should] pay attention to the root causes of why they’re feeling the way that they’re feeling.”
“I don’t think that potentially causing an endocrine disorder by giving someone cross-sex hormones or potentially surgically altering healthy body parts is an appropriate way to respond to someone who’s having mental health issues,” Helena says. “I think that they deserve a lot more personalized specific loving care.”
But Planned Parenthood and the “allies” supporting HR 15 don’t want these troubled youth to receive proper care. HR 15 specifically trashes change counseling, which is remarkably effective at healing these kids.
Worse yet, the bill seeks to silence victims like Helena, and even churches and pastors from speaking out against the “transification” of our children. If HR 15 passes, refusal to bow to Planned Parenthood and the LGBTQ’s trans agenda will be treated like racial discrimination.
As a result, boys will be allowed into girls’ locker rooms and showers, and even churches and Christian schools will be affected. And untold numbers of people like Helena will be locked into a mental health crisis that often ends in suicide.
HR 15 is very close to passing. With every Democrat co-sponsoring this bill, HR 15 only needs six more votes to pass.
Liberty Counsel has fought hard to overturn change counseling bans across the country. Our lawsuits have already overturned 23 bans in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. But 87 bans remain in place in states and localities across the nation. Regardless of what happens with HR 15, we need your immediate financial help to defeat these life-threatening counseling bans.
LifeNews Note: Mat Staver is the Chairman of Liberty Counsel Action and Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel.
