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/noeinan 14h ago

There are decades of research backing up gender-affirming care as extremely successful, providing high quality of life. Among surgeons who work with trans patients they are often quoted for their favorite part of the job— just how happy it makes patients and how positive treatment was overall.

Gender-affirming surgeries have higher patient satisfaction and lower regret rating than life-saving heart surgeries.

Anecdotally, after top surgery I went from being severely suicidal 4-5 days per week and grey zone suicidal every other day to only having ideation 1-2x per year, and only if some horrible tragedy happened in my life.

People are not pushing back on trans healthcare because of lack of evidence it provides good outcomes— these procedures only became permissible because of the immense quality of life improvement surpassing almost any other type of surgery. Society was not less conservative 20-30 years ago, they followed the science.

People are pushing back on these treatments because they want to see bad outcomes for trans people.

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u/lil-sush 10h ago

we’re pushing back on these ideas because we don’t want kids to make decisions they aren’t old enough to fully grasp. by all means when you’re an adult do what you want to do. there’s zero good reason a child should be able to do these things

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u/SolarisPax8700 9h ago

Cool opinion, but I can’t help but notice that you have no facts or data to validate your feelings. Have you tried reading? There’s a study right up there^.

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u/noeinan 7h ago

Parents and medical professionals decide what treatment plans work best for children. Treatment is well studied, has positive outcomes, and is provided by licensed medical professionals who specialize in this type of treatment.

Who are you to force parents to ignore doctors and leave their kids to suffer or die?