UCLA student sues doctors, says she was 'fast-tracked' for gender transition at age 12
A 20-year-old woman is suing California doctors for allegedly rushing her into an "irreversibly damaging" gender transition that included a double mastectomy at age 14.
A UCLA student is suing two California doctors, alleging they inappropriately "fast-tracked" her for an "irreversibly damaging" gender transition starting when she was 12 years old.
Kaya Clementine Breen, now 20, filed her suit Thursday accusing Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, who runs the nation's largest transgender youth clinic at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and numerous other defendants of rushing her into transition to a male and overlooking her mental health struggles and history of sexual abuse.
"She needed psychotherapy," the suit reads in part. Instead, Breen was "fast-tracked onto the conveyor belt of irreversibly damaging" transgender medical procedures.
Breen began puberty blockers at age 12, started cross-sex hormones at 13 and underwent a double mastectomy at 14, according to the suit.
Olson-Kennedy diagnosed Breen with gender dysmorphia "mere minutes" into their first appointment and recommended puberty blockers at the same meeting, according to the suit, which accuses the doctor of concealing important information and even outright lying to Breen and her parents about the risks and necessity of treatments.
Reached for comment Monday, a spokesperson for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles told Fox News Digital the Center for Transyouth Health and Development "has provided high quality, age-appropriate, medically necessary care for more than 30 years."
The spokesperson continued in an email that the center does not comment on pending litigation, nor does it comment on specific patients and their treatment.
Olson-Kennedy came under attack this fall after admitting to The New York Times that her team had not yet published research showing that puberty blockers did not lead to mental health improvements among young people to avoid the findings being "weaponized" by critics of transgender medical procedures.
Breen started seeing a therapist shortly before attending college and realized she "may not actually be ‘trans’ but rather had been suffering from PTSD and other issues related to her unresolved trauma," according to the suit.
She has since stopped taking testosterone and says her mental health has improved, but "her body has been irreversibly and profoundly damaged" to the point that she is "almost certainly infertile," the suit claims.
The Golden State has increasingly positioned itself as a sanctuary for transgender people, passing a shield law prohibiting police from cooperating with out-of-state prosecutions for people who seek transgender medical procedures and drugs in California, and banning school districts from notifying parents if their child identifies as a gender that's different from their school record.
Breen's lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, was filed the day after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments over whether states can ban gender transition care for minors.
Also named in her suit are Dr. Scott Mosser and the Gender Confirmation Center of San Francisco. Olson-Kennedy recommended Breen get top-surgery from Mosser, and surgery was scheduled "after a perfunctory virtual meeting" with someone on Mosser's staff, the lawsuit says.
The day of the surgery, Mosser met with Breen and her mother for less than 30 minutes before he "rubber-stamped" the operation.
A spokesperson for the Gender Confirmation Center cited HIPAA when declining to comment on "protected health information or pending litigation," but told Fox News Digital in an email that there is "no such thing as a rubber-stamped patient interaction at the GCC."
The center referred Fox News Digital to an additional statement from Mosser reading in part, "Our robust processes and protocols are designed to ensure that patients navigating our services fully understand the implications of the gender-affirming procedures they may choose to undergo as part of their transition."
The statement continued, "We regularly hear from former patients sharing updates about the overwhelmingly positive impact these surgeries have had on their lives—messages that continue to arrive many years after their procedures."
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