WATCH: Former trans woman shows effect of testosterone on her voice, body over 7 years

A young woman who was prescribed testosterone during a mental health crisis in which she believed herself to be a man has released a video demonstrating the dramatic, irreversible changes the powerful hormone causes to the voice.

The clip is a juxtaposition of two videos, one filmed seven years ago when the woman was a naive and excited 18-year-old about to embark upon an experimental medical sex change, while the other is the young woman today, following her decision to detransition.

Estella explains in her tweet that the first video was recorded just one week before her first meeting with an endocrinologist, and the second is her speaking at a De-trans Awareness Day panel for the screening of the documentary Affirmation Generation.

“Oh, how things can change in 7 years. I miss my sweet little naive voice,” Estella tweeted.

“Next week I actually have my consult with my doctor to get my bloodwork done and talk to my endocrinologist, and finally get the ball rolling on starting T,” says a bright and perky Estella. T is slang for testosterone.

“Hopefully the next time you see me, or the next two times, I will be starting T,” she added.

Transition blogging is common in the transgender community, with thousands of YouTube and TikTok videos documenting the physical changes brought by cross-sex hormones. These videos tend to paint a rosy picture of transition, with the negative effects being played down or excluded entirely from the footage.

In a Substack article about her transition, Estella describes not fitting in at school, not being comfortable with her developing body, and then discovering the transgender community online. She describes admiring “transmen” who had shed the “burden of womanhood,” and how she easily changed her online profile from she/her to he/him with a few carefully edited photographs.

“She only spent her spare time seeking videos of other transmen’s journeys and seeking treatment resources online that could offer her the transformation she desired,” Estella wrote on Substack, in a story written in the third person.

A permanent lowering of the voice is just one of many irreversible changes that occur when a woman takes testosterone. Others include male-pattern balding, facial and body hair, and vaginal and uterine atrophy.

Many proponents of adolescent sex changes argue that young people who identify as transgender should have immediate access to hormone therapy, with some suggesting that adopting a cautious psychotherapeutic approach to the treatment of gender dysphoria amounts to conversion therapy.

Estella made the decision to medically detransition a year ago after hearing the stories of other detranstioners. She now realizes that the detransition rate is higher than the oft-cited “less than 1 percent” pushed by proponents of child sex changes.

Two recent studies found the detransition rate to be 16 and 29 percent, and those numbers are expected to increase as all the young people caught up in the current social contagion of gender dysphoria reach full maturity.

Estella has spoken about the medical consequences of the experimental sex change interventions she underwent, which include heat flashes, difficulty sleeping, and urinary incontinence.

“It's ridiculous thinking that a teenager should go through,” she said during the Detrans Awareness Day panel.

Estella explained that her first conversation about the side effects of testosterone was with Chloe Cole, the detransitioned young woman who had a medically unnecessary bilateral mastectomy at age 15 and is now suing her healthcare providers.