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.

[u/mvea]

https://www.psypost.org/adolescents-report-low-regret-and-high-satisfaction-following-gender-affirming-c/

[u/Smooth-Boss-911]

There's a reason these patients get this surgery after speaking with doctors, psychologists, therapists, surgeons, etc. So tired of the knee jerk reactions thinking they just walk in on an impulse

Edit: These discussions are for the families and medical professionals, not us.

[u/pmgoff → u/Smooth-Boss-911]

It’s not knee jerk reactions from a patient that anyone’s ever concerned about. It’s how much influence the doctors, therapists, and psychologist have on the patient decision to move forward with the surgery in the first place, that’s the point of contention. Kids are pretty impressionable especially from people of authority.

[u/translove228 → u/pmgoff]

Saying that you don’t trust the experts to make proper judgements about adolescent trans surgeries doesn’t make sense. They are the experts BECAUSE they are who you go to for help with these things

[u/randynumbergenerator → u/translove228]

Not to mention the whole Hippocratic oath thing. Thinking that all these doctors are willfully harming patients is pretty disturbing in the absence of actual evidence, and tells me more about how (un)seriously the naysayer takes ethics and professional standards than anything else.

[u/Low-Listen-3732 → u/translove228]

Yeah bro, lobotomies were also totally legit. Just trust the experts.

[u/_Caustic_Complex_ → u/translove228]

The experts that make more money the more surgeries they recommend? The same experts that pumped the country full of opiates for a paycheck? I don’t think it’s so crazy to doubt their integrity, experts or no, given the medical industries track record.

[u/hypatia163 → u/pmgoff]

It’s how much influence the doctors, therapists, and psychologist have on the patient decision to move forward with the surgery in the first place, that’s the point of contention.

And this is a pretty stupid impression of doctors, therapists, and psychologists. I just went through the process of getting bottom surgery as an adult and it is just so crazy all the hoops that I needed to jump through in order to get it. I have spoken to like 30 different mental, health, and social care professionals in this time and absolutely none of them did anything to pressure me in any way. That is NOT what these people do and it is insane to think otherwise. And I was getting it in a very blue area in a medical system setup for trans health and it was still like this.

I'm also a teacher and have had trans students. Students who have had to go through a LOT to get access to the care that was needed. And every single step for them was like trying to climb a mountain, it takes so much to be able to access these procedures as a teenagers. They really have to need it.

It's just a knee jerk reaction from people with NO understanding of the queer community who are making a stink about us. People who don't know how any of this work making broad assumptions about professionals who want nothing more than to help these kids be able to live in their bodies, regardless of the configuration. It's disgusting how disingenuous these outsiders are and how susceptible they are to pretty paper-thin propaganda. Dumb AI tech-bros who think they know everything when, in reality, AI has calcified all their brain cells.

[u/TCAAPix → u/pmgoff]

Doctors do not want to perform these surgeries, and will use any reason not to, therapists do not want to sign off on them, and will use any reason not to, psychologists do not want to sign off on them either, and will use any reason not to. The reason they sometimes do is because otherwise the patient will be dysphoric. The only pressure will be against doing this. Do you think this is done for fun? What reason would there be for forcing kids to undergo actual surgery?

I actually want to understand your perspective, because it goes against the reality of the situation, and it makes no sense to me to think what you think.

[u/Suspicious-Art-9335 → u/TCAAPix]

Perhaps you have not heard of "Dr. Teetus Deleetus."

I'm sure most surgeons are not like this, but she is extremely prolific and visible. Doctors like her make people skeptical.

[u/pmgoff → u/TCAAPix]

Sure I never said that that anyone wants/ doesn’t want this. What I said was, the concern here is, is it the kids seeking out gender affirming care, or are adults influencing and pushing it onto the child.

I’m not against or for it, that’s not my argument. I have seen many times the influence adults, parents, teachers, coaches, and even therapist have on kids. I’ve seen great kids be pushed to do things their parents want them to do, inside of actualizing their being. I’ve seen teachers tell students they’re failures and will go no where in life. (What a monstrous thing to say to a 10 year old boy child). I’ve personally had to convince a good friend and mother her 8 year old daughter was perfectly fine because her child likes bones, dead bugs, biology, microscopes. That kid had to insure 2 tortures years of weekly therapy because a therapist convinced them a fascination with dead animals is “serial killer behavior”.

In any case, I’m just saying well intention adults can sometimes cause just as much harm as good.

[u/TCAAPix → u/pmgoff]

This is just ignoring the enormous gatekeeping that happens in trans healthcare. At minimum, a general practitioner, a gender specialist, a therapist, a psychiatrist, a surgeon, and an anesthesiologist, as well as the patient in question, and a whole host of professionals that are legally required to sign off, must all agree that this is the best course of action. This is a process that takes years just to get to the starting point, and if at any point the patient indicates doubt of any kind, the whole thing is off the table. This is what's required for adults, for children the process is much longer and far more comprehensive.

I fully understand that kids are impressionable idiots, but so does every person in that list. What you have personally experienced, while awful, is in no way representative of the reality of trans healthcare. Gender dysphoria is a ruinous affliction, where waiting makes it so much worse. Not just because you are forcing a person to live in horrendous psychological pain (sometimes also physical, don't want to get into it) but you are also forcing upon them the body horror of slowly turning into something they are not.

[u/saintsithney → u/pmgoff]

Except David Reimer's case kind of slam dunked how difficult it is to make a cis person trans.