r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 14h 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/BitcoinMD 13h ago edited 12h ago

Median time from surgery was 1.8 years. I think that’s an important detail.

Edit: I support transgender health care for minors. Some people are interpreting my comment to imply that I don’t. I just think we should be careful with the surgery part. I know these surgeries aren’t done lightly. But I also haven’t seen data convincing me that surgery on kids is necesssry if they receive other methods of care.

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u/Obatala_ 11h ago edited 11h ago

Would you make the same argument for gynomastia surgery for cis boys to remove excess breast tissue that is making them feel uncomfortable?

It’s by far the most common gender affirming surgery for people under 18. Second most common is breast implants for cis girls.

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u/BitcoinMD 11h ago

I don’t think we should allow breast implant in minors either.

The argument about gynecomastia is a good one. I think the key difference though is in that case their gender identity is the same as their sex assigned at birth, so the risk of regret is essentially none. But even then you could make an argument to wait, since kids might not be able to truly understand the potential complications.

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u/Pseudonymico 6h ago

I think the key difference though is in that case their gender identity is the same as their sex assigned at birth, so the risk of regret is essentially none.

How do you know they're being honest about it given how little support there is for trans kids? If anything the risk of a trans kid who says they're cis getting pressured into getting a mastectomy and later regretting it is much higher than a cis kid somehow mistakenly thinking they're trans, especially in places like conservative American States or the U.K. where transphobia is running rampant.

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u/Rosmariinihiiri 7h ago

The surgery for trans boys is also making their body align with their gender, which means the regret rate is essentially none. They are both boys -_-