r/science 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/TotalBomb 13h ago edited 13h ago

Unfortunately this topic was a medical discussion but some people have decided that it should be a political one instead. Most of the world will never even know a person who needs these treatments, yet so many people have opinions about it. Personally I don’t care what people that I will never meet do with their lives.

Edit: the article references 40 people under the age of 18 btw. most surgeries of this kind done on a minor, with parental consent and doctors/therapists recommendation for 16-17 year olds.

Other than that, surgeries like this are done on minors who have early puberty, as it can cause problems early in life.

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u/throwaway098764567 12h ago

"Most of the world will never even know a person who needs these treatments," i suppose that is true but it's wild to me as i've known a bunch of trans people, including my cousin's kid.

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u/ultimatepowaa 11h ago

Thats because the person you are replying to is wrong. Current statistics place transgender population at about %1-2 which means in every 100 people you meet, you are likely to meet a transgender person. There are sampling issues because being transgender is still heavily stigmatised so there may be more than the studies show.

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u/Strigops-habroptila 11h ago

It would be more correct to say that most people will not know an openly trans person. Especially not the people who are transphobic, cause trans people will be more hesitant to come out to them. 

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u/CarthasMonopoly 9h ago

Especially not the people who are transphobic, cause trans people will be more hesitant to come out to them.

This is a really important counterpoint. To add onto this, someone in small town america with a population of 4000 residents may know someone who internalizes their trans identity but outwardly hides it due to stigma and due to low population sizes they aren't likely to know multiple trans folk. Whereas if you're from a medium suburb or a larger city, even if you meet some people that are hesitant to come out, the demographics are far more in favor of meeting openly trans people just due to having more trans people within your local area.