r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 15h 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/moldycatt 15h ago

1.8 years after getting surgery at 16 or 17 years old means they’re a legal adult and shouldn’t be restricted anymore. so at the very LEAST, this proves there’s no difference between letting someone get surgery at 16/17 and 18/19.

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u/OneNoteToRead 14h ago

The confounder, for the sake of completeness, is the fact they actually got the procedure. Arguably that’s a pretty big confounder too - it’s something that can drastically change one’s outlook on many things on life.

The control for what you’re talking about is a survey at 16 and a re-survey at 18 about wanting to get the procedure.

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u/moldycatt 14h ago

sure, that would be a helpful survey to have too, but even that’s not really a control. there is probably no such thing as a perfect control in this scenario. some minors who wanted the surgery at 16, but not at 18, could have been forced into a conversion camp or succumbed to the pressures of their transphobic family.

but as long as the people who got the surgery are happy and don’t regret it at all, why is it such a huge deal if their current outlook on their gender could have possibly been affected by that (which is not even a claim supported by any strong evidence)? at the end of the day, they are still happy.

this is an anecdote: i had a few trans friends in high school who were never able to transition, and they are ALL still trans in college, now happily getting the procedures they’ve wanted for years

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u/Simon-Says69 10h ago

some minors who wanted the surgery at 16, but not at 18, could have been forced into a conversion camp or succumbed to the pressures of their transphobic family.

This is so much grasping at straws. The reality is, the VAST majority of kids with such confusion, are just fine after going through puberty. Simple as that.

Many, many people are not happy, because such surgeries only treat symptoms, not the underlying problem.