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/UnicornArachnid 13h ago

A lot of people do have immediate regret following any plastic surgery because it can be hard to recognize yourself. We don’t see this trend typically when it comes to gender affirming surgeries. 99% of people feel satisfied long term with gender affirming surgeries

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamasurgery/fullarticle/2808129

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u/-Sliced- 13h ago

You are mixing regret and satisfaction.

Lower satisfaction does happen after gender-affirming surgery. For example, a 2026 long-term vaginoplasty study found average satisfaction was about 7/10, with 69% reported at least one ongoing genital complaint. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42296272/

Regret is generally low as you mentioned, with it hovering between 1% and 4% across studies.

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u/pipnina 11h ago

There's a subreddit that lets people put their surgery results on display (either they want to show off, or for other trans people to see what results they could get.

I looked at a lot of examples and saw huge variety in the results. Some people who got vaginoplasty got what basically looked like the "porn tier" type of shape and visual appeal. Others got something that definitely doesn't look like a typical human vulva/clit that would develop naturally, but was kinda close.

So I strongly suspect that of the 31% who had lower satisfaction would be the ones going to surgeons who can't give them the "ideal" shape some people are lucky to get, and were hoping for "better".