Chloe Cole’s Detransitioner Lawsuit Against Kaiser Permanente

Chloe Cole’s lawsuit against Kaiser Permanente is a medical malpractice case filed in February 2023 in San Joaquin County Superior Court, alleging that Kaiser doctors put her on puberty blockers and testosterone at age 13 and performed a double mastectomy when she was 15, all without an adequate psychological evaluation or informed consent. After Kaiser lost its bid to force the dispute into private arbitration, the case is scheduled for trial on April 5, 2027.¹

What Cole Says Kaiser Did

Cole’s medical transition began in early 2018, when she was 13. Kaiser endocrinologist Dr. Lisa Taylor prescribed Lupron, a puberty blocker, and then testosterone injections.² On June 4, 2020, at age 15, she underwent a double mastectomy performed by Dr. Hop Nguyen Le at a Kaiser gender clinic in Oakland. She stopped taking testosterone in May 2021, before her seventeenth birthday, and began detransitioning.³

Before the transition began, Cole had been diagnosed with disruptive behavior disorder and ADHD, and was later diagnosed with autism at age 17. She has also described struggling with social anxiety, generalized anxiety, depression, and body dysmorphia.³ Those co-existing conditions are central to the malpractice claim.

The Core Allegations

The complaint, filed under the case name Chloe E. Brockman a/k/a Chloe Cole v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Inc., et al. (Case No. STK-CV-UMM-2023-0001612), alleges medical negligence.³ Cole contends that her doctors failed to conduct a thorough psychological evaluation before beginning treatment, ignored the ADHD and body dysmorphia diagnoses, and did not offer psychotherapy as a less invasive alternative.

The suit also alleges that providers pressured her parents by telling them she was at high risk of suicide if she did not transition, framing the choice as “would you rather have a dead daughter or a living son.”⁴ Cole says psychologist Dr. Susanne Watson approved her for surgery after a single two-hour consultation, and that when Cole asked Watson how she determined which patients would benefit from hormones, Watson “laughed and replied, ‘there’s no criteria, but you kind of get a sense of it.'”⁵

Cole has described lasting physical consequences. She reports menopause-like symptoms from puberty blockers, including severe hot flashes, joint pain, and shooting pains in her spine; vaginal atrophy affecting her pelvic organs, with severe uterine cramps and recurring urinary tract infections; failed areolar skin grafts two years after the mastectomy; and unknown fertility status.⁶

Who Is Being Sued

The lawsuit names two institutional defendants, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Inc. and The Permanente Medical Group, Inc., along with three individual clinicians:

Dr. Lisa Kristine Taylor, the endocrinologist who prescribed the puberty blockers and testosterone.
Dr. Hop Nguyen Le, the plastic surgeon who performed the double mastectomy.
Dr. Susanne E. Watson, the psychologist on Kaiser’s gender clinic team who approved Cole for surgery.⁵

Cole is represented by the Dhillon Law Group, LiMandri & Jonna LLP, and the Center for American Liberty, a conservative legal organization founded by attorney Harmeet Dhillon.⁷

Kaiser’s Response

Kaiser has publicly stated that its gender-affirming care “meets all medical standards” and that it uses a multidisciplinary team of doctors and medical professionals to provide information, counseling, and support, leaving the final decision about gender care to patients and their parents.⁴

In court filings, Kaiser has argued that Cole and her parents consented to treatment after consultations with licensed professionals and that Cole waived any right to recover damages through that consent. Kaiser also requested dismissal on the grounds that the complaint fails to state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action.⁸

The Arbitration Fight and the Trial Date

The biggest procedural battle so far has been Kaiser’s attempt to force the case into private, binding arbitration. Kaiser pointed to arbitration clauses tied to health plans held by Cole’s mother, who worked as a perioperative nurse for Kaiser, and argued the dispute belonged outside of court.⁹

San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Robert T. Waters denied Kaiser’s petition in April 2024.¹⁰ Kaiser appealed. On September 19, 2025, a three-justice panel of the California Third District Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court, finding that Kaiser failed to prove a valid arbitration agreement existed. The enrollment forms Kaiser relied on, signed by Cole’s mother in 2004 and 2005, were remote in time and did not contain the specific arbitration language that would have applied during Cole’s 2017–2020 treatment. Kaiser also tried to enforce an arbitration provision from a separate “Benefits Booklet,” but the court found the enrollment forms referenced different documents entirely, and Kaiser never submitted the actual referenced documents to the trial court.¹¹

With arbitration off the table, the case stays in San Joaquin County Superior Court. On February 18, 2026, Cole’s legal team announced that trial has been set for April 5, 2027.¹

Bid for Punitive Damages

On April 19, 2024, Cole’s team filed a motion to amend the complaint to add a claim for punitive damages, alleging malice, oppression, and fraud.⁷ The motion was supported by a declaration from Robin A. Dea, M.D., the former Chair of the Chiefs of Psychiatry for Kaiser Permanente, Northern California, and a member of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. Dea served in Kaiser leadership roles from 1979 to 2009.¹²

In her declaration, Dea argued that the clinicians involved in Cole’s care lacked the specialized training to distinguish between core gender identity and gender role behavior. She called it “unethical” to administer puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to a 13-year-old without a complete expert-led gender identity evaluation, and noted that a majority of gender non-conforming children do not ultimately identify as transsexual. Dea characterized Kaiser’s Multi-Specialty Transitions clinics as lacking access to actual gender specialists for patients like Cole until years after initial intervention.¹³

How Cole’s Case Fits With Other Detransitioner Suits

Cole’s lawsuit is one of a growing wave. A September 2025 peer-reviewed study analyzed 16 U.S. medical malpractice lawsuits related to gender detransition and found that nearly all had been filed since 2022. As of that study’s data cutoff in February 2025, none of the 16 cases had been decided in favor of the plaintiffs, and no court-ordered compensatory damages had been awarded. About 81 percent were still pending or lacked dockets indicating resolution.¹⁴

That changed in February 2026. A jury in Westchester County Supreme Court in White Plains, New York, awarded $2 million to Fox Varian, a detransitioner who had undergone a double mastectomy at age 16 in December 2019. The jury found that Varian’s psychologist, Kenneth Einhorn, and plastic surgeon, Simon Chin, committed malpractice by failing to obtain meaningful informed consent and by deviating from the standard of care. The award consisted of $1.6 million for past and future pain and suffering and $400,000 for future medical expenses. The three-week trial concluded on February 2, 2026, and was described by multiple outlets as the first jury verdict in a malpractice case involving gender-transition care performed on a minor.¹⁵¹⁶

Charles LiMandri, one of Cole’s attorneys, said the Varian verdict serves as a “dire warning” to doctors and malpractice insurance carriers, noting the claims in that case “mirror those found in other lawsuits.”¹⁶

Kaiser faces a parallel case in the same San Joaquin County court. Kayla Lovdahl, who alleges Kaiser allowed her to dictate her own treatment at age 11 and performed a double mastectomy when she was 13, filed her suit in June 2023 with representation from the Center for American Liberty.¹⁷ The Themis Resource Fund, which tracks these cases, lists at least 23 detransitioner lawsuits filed between 2005 and early 2025 across various U.S. jurisdictions.¹⁸

1
Center for American Liberty. Chloe Cole’s Trial Set for April 5, 2027
2
Transgender Map. Chloe Cole
3
Center for American Liberty. Declaration of Chloe Brockman
4
NBC Bay Area. Kaiser Permanente Sued Over Hormone Therapy
5
Center for American Liberty. Complaint, Brockman v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals
6
Kansas Legislature. Chloe Cole Testimony, HB 2071
7
Center for American Liberty. Chloe Cole Pursues Punitive Damages in Medical Malpractice Lawsuit
8
Assigned Media. Detransitioner Lawsuit, Lovdahl, Cole, Kaiser
9
Legal Newsline. Woman OK to Sue Kaiser Over Gender Transition Deception
10
Assigned Media. Chloe Cole Brockman Kaiser Lawsuit Arbitration
11
FindLaw. Brockman v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals
12
TPMG Awards, Kaiser Permanente. TPMG 60th Anniversary
13
Center for American Liberty. Declaration of Robin A. Dea, M.D.
14
PubMed Central. Physician Exposure to Litigation in Gender Detransition Medical Malpractice Cases
15
New York Times. Gender Surgery Malpractice, Varian
16
Washington Times. Jury Awards $2 Million to Detransitioner in First Malpractice Trial
17
New York Post. Kids Shouldn’t Undergo Irreversible Gender Transition Surgeries
18
Themis Resource Fund. Detransitioner Cases