Helena Kerschner is a 23 year old woman who believed that she was transgender when she was a teenager. She recently shared her full story on her Substack, and regularly speaks about her experience during interviews and events. Helena is on a mission to educate the public about the risks of “gender affirming care” in an effort to protect vulnerable people from medical and psychological harm. 

During Helena’s recent conversation with Tucker Carlson about her transition and detransition experience, she shared that, “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 is also mentioned in The Testosterone Hangover, a report by Suzy Weiss for the Common Sense Substack about the medical mistreatment detransitioners received and their deep regret over their transition experiences. Some excerpts from Helena’s story include:

“I thought testosterone would transform me from being short and pudgy to lanky and male, but in a graceful type of way, not muscley,” said Helena Kerschner, 23. Helena is from Cincinnati, and she is one of the country’s most prominent detransitioners, as people who transition genders and then change back are called. She has a Substack with thousands of subscribers.

The guidance counselor at her public school agreed with Helena that she was a man. She helped her make a budget for her transition, and referred her to the school psychologist, who was even more gung-ho. “I remember the psychologist saying, ‘Your mom is a transphobe,’ and telling me about suicide risks.” They had three or four meetings before inviting Helena’s mother to have a conversation with the both of them, which didn’t go well. 

“I had a ton of issues with my academics and my mental health, but I never really got help with that,” she said. “As soon as I said I was trans, it was all hands on deck.” 

Her parents—her mom is a doctor; her dad, an engineer—never came around. Days after she turned 18, Helena went to Planned Parenthood in Chicago. There, she saw a social worker, and then a nurse practitioner, who wrote a prescription for testosterone during that first visit. The nurse recommended a dose of 25 milligrams per week. “How high can we go?” Helena asked. Helena left the clinic with a prescription of 100 milligrams of testosterone. The whole thing took about an hour. She never saw a doctor. 

Proponents of gender-affirming care say its benefits dramatically outweigh the risks. But there’s little data to back that up, and in any case this is still a new phenomenon about which a great deal is not known. The American Medical Association staunchly supports gender-affirming care. Same with universities, especially elite universities. Same with the president of the United States. It’s unclear whether there is any academic or professional space left for the skeptics. 

“There’s more to the story,” counters Helena Kerschner, who feels failed by her doctors and therapists.”The fact that there’s adults as high up as in the Biden administration putting out these claims that young people need to medically transition is really dangerous. There’s no logic to it.” 

As Fox News reported, Helena “slowly realized she wasn’t a boy after years of enduring guidance from non-parental adults, medication, and mental health challenges. She described the realization as “crushing and terrifying.” 

More and more detransitioners like Helena are coming forward to share their stories. Society should listen to them.