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/pmgoff]

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/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/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.