Doctor or 'car salesman'? The HHS report 'Wolves in White Coats' reveals how doctors pressured teens to undergo transgender treatment

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the report "Wolves in White Coats" Thursday, detailing stories of minors who, according to the document, were allegedly pressured by hospitals and doctors to begin gender-affirming treatments. The report describes how, in several cases, professionals downplayed previous trauma, pushed for rapid medical interventions and offered little support when patients attempted to halt or reverse the process.

Below are six of the stories included in the report.

Sydney Aviles: From testosterone at age 14 to lasting side effects

Sydney began puberty at age 9. Physical changes, sexual abuse and her parents' divorce made her feel "monstrous." After watching a news report about transgender people, she became convinced that she could escape her female body.

At age 14, a therapist referred her to Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago. There, she was prescribed testosterone without a thorough evaluation of her medical history or a full explanation of the risks. At 18, she underwent a double mastectomy.

The side effects set in quickly: hypothyroidism, elevated red blood cell count and heart problems. She had to stop taking testosterone. Her menstrual cycle returned, but so did severe symptoms of PMDD, and she continues to require medication.

Today she is left with regret and irreversible damage. No doctor knows how to help her because her case is virtually unprecedented.

Lily Burns: How a chat on Roblox changed her son's life

Lily and her husband thought they were protecting their children by limiting their internet access. They didn't know that games like Roblox had chat features. Through one of these chats, their son Michael met a transgender man and became immersed in gender ideology.

When he announced that he was transgender and wanted to wear a dress to the homecoming dance, they took him to the Kaiser Permanente clinic in Denver. After just three appointments, a psychologist diagnosed gender dysphoria, recommended hormones and referred him to Children's Hospital Colorado. At age 17, he began treatment.

Later, an LGBTQ+ therapist reinforced a victim mentality. Michael, who had been gifted (IQ over 140), flunked out of college and distanced himself from his parents.

Today, at age 24, he continues to identify as transgender. His body has been permanently altered. It has taken his parents years to rebuild their relationship, and they bear the pain of what they consider irreversible harm caused by hospitals taken over by gender ideology.

Rose Marie: From the streets to testosterone, then back to the streets

Rose Marie spent her adolescence in the foster care system, and by age 16 she was homeless in Phoenix. At the LGBTQ+ center One·N·Ten, she found food, shelter and a community that affirmed her gender identity. There, she was introduced to transgender ideology.

The center organized activities with a drag queen who taught young children how to cross-dress, offered graphic presentations on sex and gender ideology, and had a drawer full of chest binders decorated with superhero motifs.

Rose began to identify first as non-binary and then as a man. She felt pressured to follow the example of the older members and the staff, on whom she depended for her livelihood.

The center referred her to the Prisma Community Care clinic, where she was diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Since she was in state custody, she couldn't start hormone therapy until she was almost 18. She used the Plume Clinic app: just a 15-minute video call consultation, and she was given a prescription. On her birthday, she was injected with testosterone for the first time.

For four years, she injected herself weekly. Her voice deepened, her periods stopped and she grew body hair. At the end of each week, she felt sick. In 2025, she stopped taking testosterone and began to detransition, but her body has not returned to normal: deep voice, fatigue, weakness, tingling, trouble using the bathroom and an irregular cycle. Doctors tell her she is in "uncharted medical waters."

She lost all her friends, became homeless again and bears the guilt of having influenced other vulnerable young people who also underwent these treatments.

Clementine Breen: From age 12 to a mastectomy and regret

Clementine was 12 years old when, without having come to terms with sexual abuse she suffered at age 7, she began to hate the changes of puberty. She searched the internet for "why I hate being a girl" and discovered gender ideology. Transitioning seemed to her like a way to escape her body.

A school counselor immediately contacted her parents and coordinated her social transition at school. In her first appointment at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, the doctors told her parents that she was "100% trans" and that she was at high risk of suicide if they did not affirm her.

At age 12, she was put on Lupron blockers; at 13, she started testosterone; and at 14, she underwent a double mastectomy. No one thoroughly assessed the sexual abuse. After the surgery, her testosterone dose was doubled. She began suffering from insomnia, eating disorders, anger, self-harm and a psychotic episode. She was prescribed various psychiatric medications, but no one linked the symptoms to the hormones.

At age 18, while in trauma therapy, she understood the true source of her distress and stopped taking testosterone. The psychosis disappeared. Today she has irregular cycles, severe pain, vaginal atrophy and needs topical estrogen. When she seeks breast reconstruction, her mental stability is questioned; at age 14, she wasn't asked those questions.

She is studying theater at UCLA and considers herself well, but she carries permanent aftereffects. Her message is clear: "If I can’t give you a reason why I’m doing something, you shouldn’t be doing it. How can a child consent to losing fertility or the ability to breastfeed if no one checks whether she even understands what that means?"

Luke Healy: From online forums at age 10 to detransitioning

At age 10, while exploring anime online, Luke came across adults discussing transgender issues. By age 13, he was convinced he was a girl. His parents refused to allow him to take hormones while he was a minor; today he considers this "one of the bravest things they ever did."

At age 18, however, Luke began obtaining estrogen through providers such as Planned Parenthood and Kaiser. He took it for two and a half years and inquired about surgeries (he was quoted $200,000 for facial feminization). A doctor spoke to him "like a car salesman." Luke realized they were selling him procedures, not psychological help. The hormones didn't resolve his distress; they only created pressure for further treatment.

He recognized the same destructive pattern as in his drug addiction. He quit using substances, reclaimed his male name and detransitioned. Today, he has no doubts about that decision, though he bears the physical side effects and the damage from more than a decade marked by an identity that was born on the internet and reinforced by institutions that never investigated the real causes.

Soren Aldaco: From testosterone to surgical complications without a support network

Soren, still a teenager, felt uncomfortable with her body and her identity. Online, she found communities that presented rejection of one's sex as the only appropriate response. She entered the medical system, was prescribed testosterone, and a team of therapists, doctors and surgeons treated her using an affirmation model, without offering her any alternatives.

Before long, they approved her for surgery, and she underwent a double mastectomy at the Crane Center. After the surgery, she continued taking testosterone for six months. She began suffering from acid reflux, gastritis and general malaise. No one reevaluated the treatment.

Her recovery was much worse than expected: her wounds were reopened to drain "three cups of blood," and hematomas were removed with swabs. The pain, she says, was "a feeling I don't think I'll ever forget." No one had warned her about these complications.

Despite everything, the doctors did not revise the treatment plan. Soren stopped taking testosterone on her own, without a detransitioning protocol or follow-up care. The path to the surgeries was coordinated and swift; the path out of it did not exist.

Today, she speaks publicly about her experience. She points out that the internet's influence on teenagers is ignored and that mastectomies were normalized too quickly.

Healthcare professionals did not present a mastectomy as a last-resort option that should be considered only after a thorough evaluation. On the contrary, this life-altering surgery was treated as an intermediate step within the gender-affirming treatment pathway.