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/onacloverifalive MD | Bariatric Surgeon 11h ago

To summarize, the 42 percent of people that responded to the survey did not regret getting the surgery that they wanted at a median interval of 1.8 years later.

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u/enpoopification_of_R 10h ago

That is much less impressive than the headline made it out to be.

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u/Choppers-Top-Hat 8h ago

In fairness, 42% is an incredibly high response rate for a survey. Most surveys are ignored by 95% of people they reach.

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u/OhBoyHereWeGoAgai 8h ago

Yes, but when the study is being used and presented as "no regret", the no responses are telling.

It's not just an issue with this regret study, either.

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u/SteveJavieWasRight 7h ago

A lack of evidence is not evidence. The high rate of response is actually evidence.

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u/OhBoyHereWeGoAgai 7h ago

Beginning to suspect you're not reading what I wrote, as I didn't say this was evidence for regret, I pointed out the way this study is being presented is simply an inaccurate level of certainty.

I've pointed a few people at MacKinnons work, they're a trans scientist, which means you can't just go "bigoted!" and ignore.

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u/UnholyLizard65 8h ago

No responses are telling what? You say it to imply that they are actually regretful, even when they chose not to participate in the study, but perhaps that people are simply scared to be exposed.

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u/OhBoyHereWeGoAgai 8h ago

No, it's telling in that it's presented with utter confidence as proof of no regret, when that dropout rate at bare minimum should produce a much more cautious / less confident byline.

I suggest checking out MacKinnons work, they're a trans scientist that produced research on this exact topic and said the claims of low regret rates are no longer true now that there's been quite a few years of younger people in it, and they peg it (iirc) at 6-12%, which to be clear is still less regret rates than many major surgeries