Despite obstacles, several cases involving minors with gender dysphoria are headed to trial this year.
Young people who used to identify as transgender have filed dozens of lawsuits in the past few years, but have yet to win a verdict in their favor.
They are known as “detransitioners,” those who regret changing their gender identity, often after making irreversible changes to their bodies via medication and surgery on the advice of medical professionals.
This year, several cases that have survived dismissal and arbitration, are making their way into courtrooms across the country.
These cases face obstacles, including statutes of limitations, caps on medical malpractice awards, and huge legal bills for cases that can drag on for years.
One case in New York, scheduled to go to trial this week, involves a then 16-year-old girl who thought she was a male and underwent a double mastectomy in December 2019, according to court documents. She has since detransitioned.
The case, Fox Varian vs. Kenneth Einhorn et. al, was filed in the Westchester County Supreme Court in 2023 against the teenager’s therapist and doctor and the medical facilities involved.
The significance of the lawsuit is apparent to attorneys at Fiedler Deutsch, an experienced New York law firm representing the detransitioner in the medical malpractice suit.
It “may be the first case of its kind in the nation to go to trial,” the firm’s website noted in an April 2025 post titled: “Understanding Detransition Cases: Legal Recourse for Minors Impacted by Gender-Affirming Care.”
Medical professionals involved in the case are accused of negligence and causing pain, suffering, and mental anguish “of a permanent nature” to the plaintiff, formerly known as Isabella Basile, according to court documents.
Defendants allegedly failed to inform the teen of “the risks, hazards, and alternatives” involved in the medical procedures she underwent, according to the lawsuit.
Defendants have denied any wrongdoing, saying in court documents that at the time of surgery, “the plaintiff still identified as a male, was happy without breasts, and did not regret her decision.”
Neither the defendant’s nor the plaintiff’s lawyers wished to comment on the case when contacted by The Epoch Times.
Nick Whitney, now a partner with Childers Law in Florida, knows first hand what it takes to win a major medical malpractice case.
He was a trial attorney representing a family in a “medical kidnapping” case against Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The case was made famous by Netflix’s 2023 documentary “Take Care of Maya” and resulted in an initial $261 million verdict against the defendants—the largest in the state’s history.
Whitney told The Epoch Times via email that a victory in the New York detransitioning case would shock the medical establishment.
“The hospitals and doctors will act like ants running around in a sugar bowl if one of these brave plaintiffs prevails,” Whitney predicted.
A win would potentially change the way pediatric gender dysphoria is treated in the United States, he said.
“The more immediate and substantial effect will be a forced reckoning—the doctors and hospitals will have to adjust their risk-calculus and decide if their legal exposure still justifies them victimizing children and adolescents,” he said.
Jonathan Hullihan, general counsel of Remnant Law Firm in The Woodlands, Texas, who defended doctors over standard-of-care issues that arose over ivermectin prescriptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, said a win in the New York case could be a game-changer in states with more generous statute of limitations deadlines.
Despite the dramatic increase in transition procedures and surgeries on minors, detransition lawsuits face significant hurdles, he said.
For example, the Themis Resource Fund lists 23 detransitioner cases, with most filed between 2022 and 2024. However, many have been dismissed, settled, or are pending.
Tort reforms, such as damage caps and statutes of limitations, are major roadblocks, Hullihan said. The cost of securing medical experts to evaluate deviations from the standard of care can exceed $50,000.
“These reforms in place often obstruct valid claims and insulate providers from accountability, particularly when regret from often irreversible surgery manifests years later,” Hullihan told The Epoch Times.
Besides the New York case, two other detransitioner cases are expected to go to trial this year.
Those include the high-profile California case brought by Chloe Cole against Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, doctors, therapists, and others.
