Anti-trans detransitioner ordered to pay $40,000 in failed lawsuit against doctors

An anti-trans detransitioner has been ordered to pay over $40,000 in attorney’s fees after a judge dismissed her case against her former doctors who provided hormone therapy.

Last year, 21-year-old Soren Aldaco from Texas filed a $1 million suit against the providers for “gross malpractice.” She claimed she was “coerced” into coming out as transgender and transitioning, including having a double mastectomy at 19 years old, which went wrong and left her “permanently disfigured.”

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Aldaco accused the doctors and nurse practitioner she worked with of ignoring her significant mental health issues in favor of medical intervention, according to a 2023 report from Fox News.

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“This lawsuit details a chronology of wrongful acts committed by a collective of medical providers who, in their pursuit of experimental ‘gender-affirming’ medical therapies, administered a series of ruinous procedures and treatments,” the complaint stated.

“Despite these telltale signs demanding caution and therapeutic resolution, however, the defendants deliberately and recklessly propelled Soren down a path of permanent physical disfigurement.”

News of the lawsuit’s dismissal was broken on X by trans rights activist and reporter for Assigned Media Julie Rei Goldstein.

BREAKING #DeTransLaw NEWS! The Motion @detranslaw filed for a New Trial in the Soren Aldaco case has been DENIED!!!

With an open motion for statutory sanctions still on the table, this is likely going to end up being very expensive for the firm that took the case on contingency. https://t.co/5E0IvRE8lU pic.twitter.com/EY2imAx0bJ

— Julie Rei Goldstein (@JulieRei) May 1, 2024

Last week, Goldstein voiced the opinion that Aldaco’s attorneys ruined her case by focusing on her entire gender journey rather than the allegedly botched surgery.

“They’re screwing up the only case with merit… by way of overreach,” Goldstein wrote. “They’ve already had the case dismissed against 4 different Plaintiffs. They should have focused on a suit against the surgical team from the get go.”

Case in point: They're screwing up the only case with merit (Soren Aldaco) by way of overreach. They've already had the case dismissed against 4 different Plaintiffs. They should have focused on a suit against the surgical team from the get go. pic.twitter.com/0LbHGlv3wL

— Julie Rei Goldstein (@JulieRei) April 25, 2024

According to Assigned Media, an earlier portion of Aldaco’s suit against her psychiatric providers has already been dismissed, though the part of the suit about her top surgery is still active.

In a 2023 essay for the Dallas Morning News, Aldaco wrote that she was wrongly convinced she was trans because she liked traditionally masculine things. As a child, she said, she connected with the trans community online because she found love, affirmation, and acceptance there – all of which she desperately needed as she struggled with her mental health. She wrote about how happy she was to try on her first chest binder, “like many who think they’re trans.”

She claimed she only continued to identify as trans because she was “showered in positive attention” from allies and no longer felt othered the way she did in everyday life.

She concluded, “The distress I was feeling was based on an incongruence with learned expectations, not an incongruence with the very fabric of my being. In reclaiming womanhood, I have strived to break this cycle instead of reinforcing it.”

Essentially, Aldaco argues that anyone can be gender nonconforming – wearing whatever they want, presenting however they want – without being transgender or getting gender-affirming care.

While she is correct that many people are gender nonconforming without being transgender, other people feel differently and feel severe distress because of the disconnect between their identities, their bodies, and how others perceive them. For these folks, studies have repeatedly shown that gender-affirming medical care can save their lives.

Anti-trans activists have used detransitioners like Aldaco as proof that gender-affirming care should be restricted because those who receive it may end up regretting it.

However, studies show that fewer than 1% of patients who undergo gender-affirming surgical procedures end up regretting it. In fact, rates of regret are higher for people who get tattoos, undergo elective plastic surgeries or bariatric weight loss surgeries, or have children, a new study found.

Additionally, gender-affirming surgery is almost never conducted on minors. Rather, trans youth who have gone through rigorous psychological evaluations are often put on reversible puberty-blocking medications or sometimes are simply encouraged to socially transition without any medical intervention.

A recent survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) found 97% of transgender people who undergo gender-affirming surgery express increased satisfaction with their lives.

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