The 21-year-old plaintiff claims that, despite being diagnosed with a wide range of mental health issues, physicians “coerced” her into identifying as transgender and accepting gender-affirming care in place of more conventional therapy.
A 21-year-old Texas woman who claims that physicians “coerced” her into identifying as transgender and receiving gender-affirming therapy has filed a lawsuit against her health care providers.
According to The Texan, the lawsuit—filed on behalf of “detransitioner” Soren Aldaco—alleges that five physicians sought to convince Aldaco that she was a transgender man who would likely benefit from hormone therapy.
After receiving gender-affirming therapy, Aldaco received an irreversible double-mastectomy in 2021.
“This lawsuit provides a detailed 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 to Plaintiff Soren Aldaco, who was then a vulnerable teenager struggling with a slew of mental health issues,” the complaint alleges.
“The repercussions of these interventions have led to Soren’s permanent disfigurement and profound psychological scarring,” the lawsuit contends.
Aldaco, writes The Texan, struggled with mental health and body image issues throughout her adolescence.
Eventually, she considered the possibility that she might be transgender, with the lawsuit attributing some of Aldaco’s confusion to “transgender online friends.”
“Because of this dislike for her female physical appearance, coupled with her general propensity to enjoy activities usually enjoyed by boys and the influence from some transgender online friends, Soren began wondering if maybe she was transgender too,” the lawsuit says.
In 2018, when Aldaco was 15, she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in a Ft. Worth-area hospital.
Placed under the care of Dr. Sreenath Nekkalapu, a named defendant in the complaint, Aldaco says that Dr. Nekkalapu “pressed so hard on the [gender identity] issue that Soren felt as though the only way to cease the discussion was to agree with him and tell him that she did identify as transgender.”
Aldaco and her attorneys now claim that this was a “coerced” decision, and that Aldaco did not—or could not—provide her informed consent for the care she later received.
Aldaco was later diagnosed with several other mental health conditions, including autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, and depression.
A year after being released from Dr. Nekkalapu’s care, Adalco purportedly began attending a “transgender support group” in Ft. Worth, where she learned that Del Scott Perry, a nurse practitioner, had a reputation for providing “easy” testosterone prescriptions.
“It was through word of mouth within this group that Soren learned that Defendant Del Scott Perry was ‘the guy’ who prescribes testosterone upon request,” the lawsuit states. “Perry attended most meetings—despite not being a transgender individual—and was the cross-sex hormone provider for most of the children and adolescents who frequented the group.”
Aldaco later explored the possibility of receiving gender-reassignment surgery, including a “top” surgery to remove her breasts.
After her double-mastectomy, Aldaco experienced significant medical complications, which led her to revisit her initial choice to transition.
Aldaco and her attorney, Ron Miller, recently appeared on FOX News, telling right-wing host Lara Ingraham that Aldaco’s health care providers negligently failed to consider treatment options beyond gender-affirming therapy and sex reassignment surgery.
“This is a situation when Soren experiencing these significant mental health issues, autism, really just looking for a place to fit in amongst her peers goes to the internet and finds some stuff about becoming transgender,” Miller said. “She reaches out to a medical practitioner expecting competent and unbiased advice and instead gets put on a fast track to puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and then as you just discussed a botched double mastectomy left her permanently disfigured for the rest of her life.”
Aldaco said that she hopes her experience, and her lawsuit, will encourage other confused teenagers to “ask the important questions” about their gender identity and sexuality before making decisions that cannot be reversed.
“You are not compromising your integrity or betraying yourself by thinking critically about what has happened to you,” Aldaco said. “By unpacking why you feel the way you feel instead of just accepting it at facing it at face value [sic].”
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