NC Family Staff | August 7, 2023 | SHARE: 
Prisha Mosley, a North Carolina native who has been a courageous leader within the detransition community, has filed suit against her former doctors. After suffering with a variety of severe mental and psychological health problems as a biological female teenager, Prisha thought “transitioning” would solve her problems. Instead of properly treating those health problems, Prisha’s doctors agreed, allowing her to pursue cross-sex hormones and top surgery (surgical removal of her breasts). She soon realized, though, that hormones and surgery couldn’t fix her problems and only created new ones. She has now detransitioned away from transgenderism and is now trying to reclaim her life as a woman while holding her healthcare providers responsible and seeking to protect others from making the same mistakes.
The suit, filed July 17, 2023, in the Gaston County Superior Court, alleges that the doctors in Prisha’s case did not follow the standard of care of medical practice, significantly and permanently harming Prisha physically and emotionally. The suit makes clear that the guidelines for transitioning given by transgender-affirming organizations like the World Professional Association for Transgender Health are not appropriate standards. Even if they were, the suit alleges, the doctors in Prisha’s case did not follow those guidelines appropriately by not being properly qualified or not spending enough time with Prisha to make the diagnoses they made. The suit also alleges that the doctors withheld important information about the side effects of the gender transition procedures, and ultimately lied to Prisha, telling her that these procedures would fix her problems. The suit asks the Court to provide monetary relief to Prisha to the maximum extent that the Court is allowed to provide.
The 53-page complaint explains aspects of Prisha’s story that led her into seeking physical and mental health care. Prisha, a survivor of sexual assault which resulted in a miscarried pregnancy at age 14, struggled with psychological conditions that complicated her view of her own body. Treatments for these conditions, which included borderline personality disorder, depression, anxiety, and anorexia were largely overlooked according to the lawsuit. Instead, doctors “convinced her that changing her body to appear as the opposite sex would solve her substantial mental disabilities….” These diagnoses, according to the complaint, “were fraudulent, reckless, [and] rife with incompetence.”
The suit also raises questions about the relationships between doctors and the parents of gender-confused children. The suit alleges that healthcare professionals communicated with Prisha and even performed procedures on her without the knowledge of her parents. One instance alleged is that Prisha was given a “depo shot” (a form of birth control) without her mom being aware. This procedure was given for the purpose of preparing Prisha for “gender transitioning.” Another occurrence, according to the lawsuit, is the suggestion by doctors to Prisha that it was illegal for her parents to prevent her from receiving a gender transition. The suit points out that Prisha, being in the mental state she was in at the time, could not have been competent enough to provide consent for these procedures, as is often the case for gender-confused youths that suffer from multiple different mental disorders.
It remains to be seen how this lawsuit will resolve, but if the allegations are found to be true, it reinforces the importance of protecting gender-confused children and their parents from experimental gender transition procedures. HB 808—Gender Transition/Minors, which would prohibit the administration of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, as well as gender transition surgeries on minors, is currently pending veto override votes in the North Carolina General Assembly. Learn more about this important legislation here.
