Arizona has a medical and moral obligation to protect children. That’s the message I’m delivering to the state Legislature in two separate testimonies on Wednesday and Thursday. I’m speaking in support of two critical pieces of legislation that deal with transgender treatments for children. As someone who tried to change my gender, I know from firsthand experience that children should be spared from that suffering. They need real support, not false promises of happiness.

I’m 21 now and proud to be a girl. But when I was 12, I thought I was a boy born in a girl’s body. I’d been sucked into the transgender world through video games and social media. But instead of helping me come to grips with my true self, therapists and doctors only validated my confusion.

I believed them. Within a matter of months, I was taking puberty blockers to stop my natural development as a girl. Within a year, I was taking cross-sex hormones, so I could look more like a boy. At 15, I got a double mastectomy. I didn’t just permanently alter my young body. I destroyed a central part of who I am as a woman.

Reality soon began to set in. I asked myself: What if I wanted children? What if I wanted to breastfeed them? What if I was actually what my body said I was — what the medical professions said I wasn’t? At age 16, I realized I had always been and would always be a girl. But it was too late to go back. The damage had already been done.

That was six years ago. I still don’t recognize myself when I look in the mirror sometimes, thanks to the puberty blockers and hormones. I still have bandages where my breasts used to be. I desperately wish that therapists and doctors had helped me. Instead, they hurt me. I’ll deal with the consequences for the rest of my life.

Hundreds of Arizona children have tried to take the same dead-end road as me. Countless more are at risk of being hurt, too. While state leaders have rightly banned sex-change surgeries for children, that’s not enough to keep kids safe. More must be done — immediately.

I’m testifying in support of two bills that put children first. First and foremost, I’m urging Arizona to pass Rep. Lisa Fink’s ban on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones — HB2085. These treatments permanently change a child’s body, with no chance of ever going completely back. What’s more, they put children at risk of lifelong medical complications — everything from strokes to mental illness.

There is no good reason to subject kids as young as 11 or 12 to these experimental and irreversible treatments. It’s far better to let their minds and bodies develop naturally, until they can make fully informed decisions as adults.

Arizona also needs to support the kids who’ve already gone down the transgender road and are suffering from what’s been done to them. That’s why I’m testifying in support of Sen. Janae Shamp’s bill to hold medical professionals liable for the damage they do to these vulnerable children. SB1015 would put doctors on the hook for the costs of detransition procedures when kids attempt to reverse the damage of an attempted transition.

I know firsthand that detransitioning takes everything from ongoing therapy to daily prescriptions to reconstructive surgery. I need medical help for the rest of my life, all because of what doctors did to me when I was a young teenager. They told me and my parents that trying to change my gender was cost-free. In fact, it’s incredibly costly, in both money and mental and physical health. When doctors hurt kids, they should be forced to help those same kids regain as much health and stability as possible.

I hope the state Legislature passes these bills as soon as possible. For that matter, I hope Gov. Hobbs doesn’t veto them without a second thought. That would be an insult to the Arizona children who are suffering. It would send the message that they deserve to be ignored. But they shouldn’t be ignored — they should be seen and supported. These kids need help. They need healing. And they need leaders who give them hope.

Chloe Cole is the patient advocate at Do No Harm Action.