Major Medical Group Comes Out Against Gender Reassignment Surgeries for Minors

For years, criticizing gender reassignment surgeries for minors would unleash a cancel campaign over being “transphobic” and intolerant. The media amplified such attacks. Then the issuance of the Cass Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People led countries to significantly curtail such procedures in Europe. However, many academics in the United States continue to push back on the Cass Report and the effort to curtail transitioning procedures for children. Now, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons has published a position statement recommending that surgeons delay gender reassignment surgeries until a patient is 19-years-old.

The ASPS represents more than 11,000 physicians around the world.

The release notes that:

“Available evidence suggests that a substantial proportion of children with prepubertal onset gender dysphoria experience resolution or significant reduction of distress by the time they reach adulthood, absent medical or surgical intervention. Evidence regarding adolescent onset presentation, which has become increasingly common since the mid-2010s, is more limited but similarly does not allow for confident prediction of long-term trajectories.”

This is an extension of a statement issued last year that added the specific age recommendation.

As many parents have argued, that “resolution” is part of maturation for many children. However, the complaint is that psychologists and other experts push parents to begin gender transitioning while children are still minors, often warning that failure to do so could lead to the death of their children by suicide.

That complaint was at the heart of a case this month that led to the first major verdict against doctors for such surgeries. In New York, a jury awarded $2 million to Fox Varian, 22, over the double mastectomy performed on her while she was a minor. Psychologist Kenneth Einhorn and surgeon Simon Chin were held responsible for failing to follow the standards of care of reasonable doctors.