A woman who underwent a double mastectomy after identifying as “nonbinary” has reached a confidential settlement reportedly worth $3.5 million after suing the mental health providers who approved her for surgery.
Camille Kiefel, 36, filed a malpractice lawsuit in Oregon against two therapists whom she alleged improperly cleared her for irreversible gender transition surgery after only brief telemedicine evaluations despite a lengthy history of mental health struggles and trauma.
The lawsuit accused licensed clinical social worker Amy Ruff and licensed professional counselor Mara Burmeister — along with their employers Brave Space and the Quest Center for Integrative Health — of professional malpractice, fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
According to the complaint, Kiefel was approved for a double mastectomy in 2020 after two Zoom sessions lasting roughly an hour or less each.
At the time, Kiefel identified as “nonbinary” and believed gender transition might resolve longstanding emotional distress connected to childhood trauma, depression, suicidal ideation and ADHD.
But Kiefel later detransitioned less than two years after the surgery, saying the procedure failed to address the underlying causes of her psychological struggles while leaving her with permanent physical and emotional consequences.
Days before the case was set to go to trial, the parties reached a confidential settlement, according to reporter Benjamin Ryan, who has extensively covered detransitioner lawsuits.
Kiefel told Fox News Digital she pursued the case because she believed vulnerable patients were being rushed into irreversible medical procedures without adequate psychological evaluation or informed consent.
“I didn’t want what happened to me to happen to other vulnerable girls and women,” Kiefel said. “And I wasn’t given true informed consent. And that’s something that everyone deserves to have for any medical procedure.”
Kiefel said her discomfort with femininity and her body stemmed partly from severe childhood trauma, including witnessing the aftermath of sexual violence involving a close friend during elementary school.
“I started dressing more masculine after that … I just wanted to protect myself,” she said.
She later encountered the concept of being “nonbinary” while taking a women’s studies course in college and came to believe the identity explained her feelings of alienation and distress around gender.
After undergoing surgery, however, Kiefel said she experienced serious health complications, including vertigo, tinnitus and Raynaud’s syndrome; a condition affecting blood circulation.
Eventually, she began focusing on nutrition and physical health through naturopathic treatment and said improvements in her overall health also dramatically improved her mental well-being.
“So while I’m addressing all my physical health issues, I start to question whether or not the surgery was helpful for me,” Kiefel said. “And then about a year and a half later, I de-transitioned.”
Kiefel described ongoing grief and regret over the irreversible nature of the surgery.
“It’s difficult because now I’m the most mentally healthy and most mentally stable I’ve been in my entire life, but I now no longer have my breasts,” she said.
“And it is difficult because there’s little reminders,” she continued. “I’d like to have kids, but I would never be able to nurse them.”
The lawsuit is part of a rapidly growing wave of litigation involving detransitioners — individuals who medically transitioned and later reversed course or regretted their treatment.
According to Ryan, at least 30 detransitioners have filed lawsuits against healthcare providers in recent years.
Earlier this year, another detransitioner, Fox Varian, reportedly won a $2 million judgment involving referrals for gender transition surgery performed while she was still a teenager.
The cases are becoming central to the national debate on gender medicine and the standards used to evaluate patients before permanent procedures such as mastectomies, hormone treatments and surgeries.
Critics of current gender-affirming care models argue some providers have adopted an overly ideological “affirmation-only” approach that minimizes psychological screening and fast-tracks vulnerable patients into medical interventions with lifelong consequences.
Supporters of gender-affirming care argue such treatments remain medically necessary and beneficial for many transgender individuals, insisting that detransition cases shouldn’t be used to restrict care.
Still, the growing number of lawsuits has intensified scrutiny of mental health evaluations, informed consent standards and whether some patients — especially those with trauma histories or psychiatric conditions — are being adequately assessed before life-altering procedures.
Kiefel herself said she believes litigation may ultimately become one of the strongest forces pushing the medical system to reevaluate current practices.
“It’s incredibly important that these lawsuits are brought forward,” she said.
“So for many, I think for a lot of this is going to be the lawsuits that are actually going to create change.”
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