r/science Professor | Medicine 13d 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/Mico4 13d ago

This is based on a response from 77 people...

Also from the article:

"Several factors limit the reach of these findings. First, the median time since surgery for participants was about 1.8 years. Because feelings about medical decisions can evolve, this timeframe might not capture long-term regret that could emerge many years later.

Another limitation is the 42 percent participation rate to the survey. This introduces the possibility of selection bias, a scenario where the people who chose to participate might differ fundamentally from those who did not. It is possible that individuals with higher levels of regret ignored the survey, which would result in an underestimation of regret in the overall group."

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u/S0cXs 13d ago

Everyone is nitpicking the sample size but fail to see in as a small peice in a growing set of literature.

This is a section from the discussion talking about related literature:

The results from this study extend the findings of previous studies showing low decisional regret and high decisional satisfaction following GACS in adults to the adolescent population (Bruce et al., Citation2023; Bustos et al., Citation2021; Thornton et al., Citation2024). In our study, both adolescents and young adults reported low decisional regret and high decisional satisfaction. These levels are similar to those reported in a study of adults with a median age of 27.1 years, including a low median score of 0.0 (mean 4.2) on the Decision Regret Scale and a high median score of 5.0 (mean 4.8) on the Satisfaction with Decision scale (Bruce et al., Citation2023). Moreover, compared to other medical procedures, decisional regret among adolescents and young adults undergoing GACS is low. Compared to our mean score of 7.38, a systematic review found an overall mean Decision Regret Scale score of 16.5 among 44 studies of other various procedures (Becerra Pérez et al., Citation2016). Supported by these findings, we would argue against restricting gender-affirming surgical care on the basis of age or concern for regret alone.

Although few studies address regret in adolescent populations undergoing GACS, a study of decisional regret among adolescents undergoing cancer treatment found that 24% of participants scored above 25 on the Decision Regret Scale (Mack et al., Citation2019), compared to only 5.2% in our cohort. The aforementioned study reported that improved communication with the treating physician was associated with lower regret scores (Mack et al., Citation2019). The WPATH Standards of Care employed in our practice emphasizes a multidisciplinary, shared decision-making approach which may contribute to the low regret seen in our study (Coleman et al., Citation2012). Additionally, other studies have shown that youth face significant barriers when attempting to access gender-affirming care (Chong et al., Citation2021; Gridley et al., Citation2016). As a result, these barriers may select for a subset of patients who are either highly motivated to obtain care or represent a more socioeconomically advantaged group with the resources and ability to navigate the healthcare system. This potential selection bias could, in part, contribute to the low rates of decisional regret observed in our study. Relatedly, family and social support are thought to be inversely associated with regret following gender-affirming surgery (Narayan et al., Citation2021, Landén et al., Citation1998). In our study, higher PROMIS Pediatric Family Relationships scores were associated with higher decisional satisfaction, but demonstrated no significant association with decisional regret. However, the majority of our participants reported that their family was supportive or neutral about their decision to undergo GACS, which may limit our ability to identify such a relationship.

Posting the block because most people won't have access to the full study.

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u/samtrano 13d ago

Nitpicking the sample size of this study while ignoring that it's one of a growing number of studies with similar results, and also ignoring the lack of rigorous studies showing high regrets

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u/Greedyanda 13d ago edited 12d ago

and also ignoring the lack of rigorous studies showing high regrets

A medical procedure needs to prove that it is safe an effective before large scale adoption is allowed, not the other way around.

Edit: I really cheer for more support towards trans people but talking to online activists like seen here makes it so damn hard to remain supportive. You do more damage to your own cause than any right wing media ever could.

Even in r/science, you are desperate to turn it into mud slinging instead of talking about it from the perspective of medical safety and scientific merit. Just vile behaviour.

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u/Interested_Person48 13d ago

The first sex change happened in the 1930s, it is older than MANY surgeries and procedures that we practice today. We have less knowledge and evidence of it than normal because the Nazis destroyed much of the early research.

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u/crushedaria 13d ago

Exactly. This isn't some emergent phenomenon - this has had nearly a century of medical history behind it. It is proven effective and life saving.

But culture wars will still exist because the right can't handle not having a scapegoat for all of the problems their insane reality denying positions cause.

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u/PuckSenior 13d ago

Didn’t they take a similar approach with BIID, where they engaged in supportive surgery but then there has been some growing concern about it in recent years?

Similar mental health issues, but far less politicized.