Brianna Wu: Real Trans People Suffer When Doctors Accept "Create Your Own Gender" Ideology — Dr Drew

"We're getting people really extreme treatment that is not serving them," trans activist Brianna Wu tells Dr. Drew, warning that progressive politics have caused grave harm to healthcare for people with gender dysphoria. As someone who transitioned over two decades ago, Brianna argues that the modern medical establishment has been "politically hijacked" by its most extreme, neurotic voices... and says things have gotten so bad, we must "roll back" to the DSM-4 and "get all these politics out of it" to undo the damage.

"It was called the standards of care," says Brianna. "Every step built on other steps. If I wanted to get hormones, I couldn't go to Planned Parenthood and sign a waiver. I had to go do three months of therapy, and then... if I had no more comorbidities and no complicating factors, and the therapist felt comfortable with it, then I could take it to a doctor. Then I could get on hormones. Then I could start living as a woman. Then we could think about surgery."

"Their political solution was to say trans women can't get health care," Brianna continues. "If I cleared all of those steps easily in Mississippi 22 years ago, I really think someone today can go find a doctor if they actually have gender dysphoria and talk to them for three months. That seems utterly reasonable to me."

From the 4/9/2026 episode of Ask Dr. Drew