Two years after being diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a 14-year-old Australian boy who was nearly finished transitioning to female has changed his mind, the Independent is reporting.
“When everyone went to sleep I’d stay up late researching trans people and potential surgeries that I could have to make me look more feminine,” Patrick Mitchell said, explaining the beginning of his transition from male to female to the Australian outlet Now to Love.
“It was so hard to wake up every morning and see something new on my body, or that I’d grown. It was so depressing—I hated looking in the mirror. I didn’t know who the person staring back at me was.”
After listening to her son and the advice of professionals, Mitchell’s mother supported his decision to grow out his hair and take hormones to help him grow breasts. But after teachers at Mitchell’s school started to refer to him as “one of the girls,” he began to question the way he felt about his gender identity.
“I began to realize I was actually comfortable in my body. Every day I just felt better,” Mitchell said. Now a high school student, he has stopped taking hormones and is having his excess breast tissue removed.
Mitchell is appearing on 60 Minutes Australia this Sunday to explain more about his transition and why he decided to stop it. Watch the clip from the interview above.
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