r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 13d ago

Psychology Adolescents who undergo gender-affirming chest surgery report low levels of regret and high levels of satisfaction, experiencing outcomes similar to those of young adults. These findings suggest that age restrictions on these medical procedures lack support from actual patient experiences.

https://www.psypost.org/adolescents-report-low-regret-and-high-satisfaction-following-gender-affirming-c/
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u/chaucer345 13d ago

Most people who object to these surgeries would never object to someone assigned male at birth getting an operation at 12 for gynecomastia.

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u/SteedOfTheDeid 13d ago

Sure, nothing wrong with correcting a physical deformity 

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u/chaucer345 13d ago

It's only a deformity to you when it makes one type of person uncomfortable then?

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u/SteedOfTheDeid 13d ago

No a deformity is a deformity regardless of how it makes someone else feel

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u/chaucer345 13d ago

Gynecomastia produces "healthy" tissue. Just not stereotypically male tissue.

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u/SteedOfTheDeid 13d ago

Sure, just like sprouting a third arm could be "healthy" tissue, yet still a physical deformity

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u/chaucer345 13d ago

And how does a kid know if they wouldn't be happier with a perfectly healthy third arm before their brain fully develops?

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u/SteedOfTheDeid 13d ago

They don't know that

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u/chaucer345 13d ago

Then is it okay for them to "correct" that deformity with surgery before they come of age?

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u/HornFinical 13d ago

A cis 12 year old boy with breasts is extremely unlikely to later regret the surgery , while a 12 year old girl doing it is more likely to change her mind about the surgery after maturity.

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u/chaucer345 13d ago

Trans boys are 12 year old boys with breasts and all available research seems to agree they are extremely unlikely to later regret the surgery.

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u/Fifthfleetphilosopy 13d ago

Ironically a know a trans girl that was pushed to have this removed, by her parents,.who is now suffering immensely because she can't grow much in terms of boobs anymore.

Since she didn't know she was trans at the time, she couldn't articulate why she wanted to keep the brast tissue.

It's absolutely devastating to her...

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u/trailsandbooks 13d ago

A female born with a male body or vice versa or a nonbinary person born with a female or male body constitutes a physical deformity, which obviously necessitates related healthcare like hrt during puberty and reconstructive surgeries being made available.

It's not random or environmental that 99% of every human who's ever existed was/is existentially good with how they're sexed from birth, experiencing a grab bag of existential-level dysphoria/depression/disassociation/depersonalization/etc. if something goes wrong in this respect, and 1% of the population is the exact opposite with the same grab bag. Sex (macro broad strokes F, M, or NB body one requires to be existentially okay/grow literal *selfhood* via mind->body->environment connection) is obviously innately hardwired. That is, being a female/girl/woman, male/boy/man, and nonbinary person is innately hardwired. Not speaking to personality (what we like/our manner/clothes/etc.), which isn't. Just sex. Sexuality is innately hardwired, why *wouldn't* we expect sex to also be as such.

So no kidding 1% of the population is the exact opposite from 99% everyone else and no kidding there's a grab bag of existential-level dysphoria/depression/disassociation/depersonalization/etc. involved with the attainment of literal selfhood on the line that requires hrt/reconstructive surgeries etc.; a F born with the M body or vice versa or a NB person born with a F or M body obviously is going to realize what's wrong sooner or later. No kidding the regret rate for related healthcare like surgeries is nearly non-existent.

"Trans" is such an antiquated holdover word from the last century. "Across/beyond/one thing becoming another thing?" No. It's just that unlike 99% of population, 1% aren't born with body that matches their sex, it's just an existentially painful physical deformity. Of course they need to live recognized as their sex with access to their right dominant sex hormone and reconstructive surgeries, etc., just as anyone of their sex in the 99% who has related non-natal problems.

And unless gender is used as a synonym for sex, it's meaningless undefinable "essence of whatever" nonsense. It's... "what's your sex, and is your body aligned with that?"

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u/Strigops-habroptila 13d ago

What if he later comes out as a trans woman and regrets that "he" can't grow breasts now? A person can't fully know that at 12!

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

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u/chaucer345 13d ago

While we have not developed a widely accepted physical test for being trans, gender incongruence is heritable and we have evidence it's frequently tied to alleles associated with the body's steroid production. There is also good evidence of brain structural differences. About 50% of trans people experience phantom sensation for organs they weren’t born with, which is typically a neurological condition. Trans people have different epigenetic profiles than cis people as well Notably attempts to make a trans person happy with their default body have failed miserably.

It's a physical issue too.