Young teens in Quebec dealing with gender dysphoria are being rushed into irreversible gender transitions, despite activist claims to the contrary.
An investigation by Radio-Canada, CBC’s French language arm, revealed how 14-year-old girls in the province can quickly obtain a prescription for cross sex hormones, without a medical referral or the consent of their parents.
“Trans Express” took on the polarizing topic of child transitions with interviews with trans youth who are happy with their transitions and “gender-affirming” healthcare providers, but also with detransitioners and gender critical voices.
Quebec has no minimum age for gender transitions, although trans-identified patients must wait until they are 16 to get double mastectomies and 18 to get genital surgery.
From 14 and onward, parental consent is not required for one to be prescribed puberty blockers and hormones.
Radio-Canada sent a young 14-year-old actress with a hidden camera into a private gender clinic to test the system. She received a prescription in minutes. This teen was able to get her prescription without the presence of her parents or a referral from a doctor, psychologist or therapist.
The girl was asked to review a form containing all the side effects of medical transition, before then seeing a doctor. The girl told the doctor that she was diagnosed with an eating disorder and became convinced she was born in the wrong body after watching videos on the internet.
Rather than review all the side effects of hormones with the patient, or try to see if underlying conditions were behind the teen’s gender dysphoria, the doctor proceeded to ask the teen if her parents supported her transitioning, and if she had considered surgery, “(like a) mastectomy, removing the chest.”
The doctor also asked the child if she wanted to preserve her fertility. “I understand that it’s a bit far off for you, at 14… Is fertility something you want to preserve before you start?”
“Er… no. I always knew I didn’t want children,” replied the girl, to which the doctor said “okay.”
After just nine minutes, the girl was given a prescription for cross sex hormones.
“Of course, when you’re 14, we don’t give adult doses right away, because you don’t want your hair to start growing the next morning,” said the doctor. “I’m going to start you on an intermediate dose…between adult and non-binary.”
When asked by Radio-Canada to comment, the doctor said, “a medical consultation is not evaluated in terms of duration, but rather in terms of the quality of the exchange of information between the patient and the healthcare professional. When the healthcare professional feels that all the necessary elements have been covered, and the patient has had the opportunity to ask all his or her questions, there is no reason to continue the consultation just to reach a specific duration.”
Multiple detransitioners from Quebec said they feel they were rushed into irreversible transitions by “gender-affirming” healthcare providers, whom they say did little about other pre-existing mental health conditions.
The first detransitioner, a 24-year-old woman who used the pseudonym Clara, said she dealt with fragile mental health as well as self-esteem issues as a teenager.
She was exposed to gender ideology on social media site Tumblr, and was subsequently encouraged to transition by a “gender-affirming” psychologist. After a few sessions with the psychologist, Clara told her mother, “I’d rather be an effeminate boy than a butch woman.”
“I didn’t feel specifically like a woman, because the representations of women I saw gave me the impression that this was a standard I would never be able to reach.”
“Clara’s” parents were told to begin transitioning their daughter right away, as otherwise, she may commit suicide.
“From the very first meeting, (the therapist said) it was important to act as if (Clara) were a boy….To take steps with the school, to start hormone therapy as soon as possible, because the suicide rate was very, very, very high in the first year (of transition).”
At 15, “Clara” was placed on puberty blockers and then cross sex hormones. She then received a double mastectomy at 17.
“Clara” however later came to regret her surgery. She has since detransitioned and is living as a woman, but with permanent changes to her body.
Jane Rocheleau-Matte was another detransitioner featured in the report investigation.
Rocheleau-Matte explained that she was a tomboy as a teenager, and discovered gender ideology on streaming platform Twitch during the pandemic and thought it was “something that resonates with me, a girl who thinks she’s more masculine.”
At 16, she began taking cross sex hormones, and soon after, was green lit for a double mastectomy by a “gender-affirming” endocrinologist.
Rocheleau-Matte says she began having regrets the moment she took off her bandages. But as she would find out, detransitioning is harder than transitioning.
“They told me I had to wait two or three years and have psychological follow-up for over a year,” she said. Rocheleau-Matte found this surprising because “before they removed my breasts, they didn’t ask me for psychological follow-up.”
“I find that when you’re transitioning, there’s a lot of people welcoming you, no one questioning you,” Rocheleau-Matte added. “But when you arrive to detransition […] all of a sudden, you’re lower on the priority list.”
Like other jurisdictions, Quebec is seeing dramatic increases in child transitions amid gender ideology being rampant in schools and on social media.
Approximately 1100 gender dysphoric teens are currently being treated in the province’s two main gender clinics. The number of girls between the ages of 14 and 17 being prescribed testosterone increased by 870% in 10 years. Furthermore, 18 Quebec girls had their breasts removed in 2023, and while that number may be small, there were no double mastectomies performed on minors in 2017.
Reactions from the trans community were mixed. Some prominent trans voices in Quebec said they were shocked by the findings and agreed that doctors are going too fast. However, more militant trans activists called out Radio-Canada for airing the investigation, accusing the public broadcaster of spreading “moral panic” and platforming “anti-trans voices.”
Michelle Blanc, one of the most well-known transgender women in Quebec, said in aninterview with CHOI Radio X she was “profoundly shocked” by what she saw.
“We have gone from it being hard to change genders to it being too easy,” said Blanc, who added that “ideology must leave therapy.”
Beatrice Robichau, a prominent Quebec transgender business woman, told Radio X that while she was disappointed that the documentary made it seem like the majority of teen transitions end in regret, she also believes the a hormone presription after a nine-minute consultation is unreasonable.
Robichau wants the College of Physicians to get involved and reprimand doctors who rush kids into transition without following proper protocols.
Left-wing trans activist Celeste Trianon meanwhile accused Radio-Canada of “platforming junk science,” claiming that “by further platforming anti-trans junk science, Radio-Canada is granting a voice of authority to these bad faith actors who are attempting to erase us, to dehumanize us, to eliminate us from public life.”
University of Alberta law professor and militant trans activist Florence Ashley echoed Trianon’s concerns. “Radio-Canada jumping on the moral panic train by making a whole documentary platforming anti-trans views in the middle of an unprecedented rise in legal persecution towards trans people in Canada. Beyond disappointing. They should be ashamed.”
