(LifeSiteNews) – Earlier this month, the news broke that up to 1,000 families were likely to sue the soon-to-be-shut down Tavistock gender clinic over allegations that the “affirmative” model resulted in thousands of children being put on hormones and puberty blockers and given surgeries without fully understanding what they were consenting to or being aware of the irreversible damage they were incurring. Legal experts and commentators have been predicting a wave of medical malpractice lawsuits for years; many wondered if the Tavistock class-action is a harbinger of things to come.
A story in the Sydney Morning Herald by Julie Szego indicates that Australia’s gender ideologues may also be facing a judicial reckoning. Jay Langadinos is suing psychiatrist Dr. Patrick Toohey for professional negligence for prescribing her masculinizing hormones without doing the necessary psychiatric evaluations in May of 2010, when she was struggling with gender dysphoria and erroneously identifying as male. She was referred to Toohey by her endocrinologist. On her first visit, Toohey diagnosed her with gender dysphoria and “found she was suitable for hormone therapy, in this case testosterone, which encourages the development of male secondary sexual characteristics.”
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At their second appointment in February 2012, Toohey approved Langadinos for a double mastectomy—the removal of her healthy breasts—which she underwent in April. In May at their third appointment, Toohey approved a hysterectomy, stating that he could not discern “any psychiatric contraindication to proceeding with hysterectomy as part of gender transition.” In November of that year, at the age of 22, Langadinos had her womb surgically removed. But with each surgery, Langadinos found herself feeling more deeply depressed despite her belief that hormones and surgeries would bring her happiness.
When Langadinos realized that gender transition was only making her mental health worse, she sought other psychiatric help. In November of 2016, while under the care of Dr. Robert D’Angelo, she realized that the hormones and the surgeries had been a mistake. In 2020, she stopped taking hormones completely. She stopped identifying as a man, and began to realize the extent of the damage that had been done by “transition.” Toohey, she says, “failed to take the precautions” to ensure that the “loss of her breasts, uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries” would not irreparably harm her, as she now believes. She also states that Toohey should have told her to get a second psychiatric opinion before such a drastic step.
Langadinos’ lawsuit pours fuel on the fiery debate surrounding the “gender affirming” model in Australia. Her story is also the latest high-profile case of a de-transitioner forcing their story into the mainstream and shedding light on the dangers of transition. “Knowing I can’t have children is absolutely devastating,” she told the Herald. In addition to that, she also “has suffered and continues to suffer from injuries and disabilities” due to her hormone therapy, including “complications from early menopause,” “impaired psychological functioning, an ongoing need for medical treatment and diminished capacity for employment.” She had believed as a teenager that she was transgender because of her complicated home life—a psychiatrist fulfilling his duty, she believes, would have interrogated her past before putting her on the path to transition.
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Anna Kerr, the lawyer with the Feminist Legal Clinic of New South Wales who sent Langadinos’ case to the legal firm Slater and Gordon, told the Herald that her lawsuit is “likely to be the tip of the iceberg. We can expect to see extensive litigation in future years related to gender-affirming cross-sex hormones and surgeries.” If that happens, the medical cottage industry that has sprung up to meet the exploding demand for “sex changes” in young people may find themselves under siege—and each time one of these cases makes the news, the chilling effect on those seeking transition and those willing to facilitate transition is likely to grow.
