Sex reassignment surgeries in American children have increased more than tenfold in the past decade, a study suggests.
In what is believed to be the largest study of its kind, researchers looked at the number of mastectomies performed among under-18s at a major health system in California since 2013.
The surgery involves surgically removing breast tissue and flattening the breasts of biological girls who are trans so they can feel more aligned with their gender identity.
The results showed a 13-fold increase in annual procedures performed by 2020, with girls as young as 12 undergoing the irreversible surgery. In 2013, fewer than five per 100,000 trans girls underwent the surgery, up from a peak of nearly 50 per 100,000 in 2019.
As gender-affirming care becomes more popular with children, patients who regret the irreversible procedure and feel that they were not challenged enough as a child.
The number of children undergoing the procedure has increased tenfold since 2013 (pictured left). Some patients were as young as 12 years old (show top right). The vast majority did not regret the surgery, with only 2 children saying they wished they hadn’t gone through with it
The researchers studied mastectomies in girls ages 12 to 17 in the health system of Kaiser Permanente in Northern California between January 2013 and July 2020, in 56 regions.
The hospital is home to two specialist gender clinics, but patients have access to gender care in all of its services.
The results found a 13-fold increase in surgeries at Kaiser’s 27 hospitals in the region.
One of Oakland’s hospitals performed 70 top surgeries on children ages 13 to 18 in 2019 — compared to just five in 2013, according to the New York Times.
Of the 209 patients who underwent the surgery between 2013 and 2020, 10 were 12 or 13 years old. The median age of referral was 16 years.
The majority had a history of mental illness – about 60 percent had anxiety and/or depression and 11 percent had a history of an eating disorder.
The most common procedure was a double incision, where a horizontal cut is made on each side of the breast to remove breast tissue. Nipples are also removed and reduced in size.
Only two patients reported postoperative regret, but neither underwent reparative surgery.
However, the median postoperative follow-up was only two years, and an increasing number of patients are coming forward and expressing regret in adulthood after having the surgery as a child.
Of the 137 patients followed for more than a year after surgery, seven percent had at least one complication, including severe bruising, infection and scarring that required steroid injections.
All were biological girls, 87 percent of whom identified as male. About 10 percent identified as non-binary and three percent identified as “other.”
This map shows the percentage of children between the ages of 13 and 17 identified as transgender by state. The dark colors indicate a larger proportion of young pigeons. In New York and New Mexico it is even three percent
A Massachusetts-based detransitioner named Shape Shifter transitioned from male to female, but ran into terrible medical problems. He has since transitioned and identifies as a gay man with a feminine appearance. He has faced harassment and harassment after publicly criticizing transgender ideology. He was branded a lackey by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for testifying at the Florida hearing, and is now considering whether to buy a gun for self-defense
Sinead Watson, from Glasgow, Scotland, lived as a man from the age of 23 and underwent a double mastectomy, but realized at the age of 27 that she had made a terrible mistake and was displaced by the age of 28. She took to social media this week about widespread harassment from the transgender community she left: “I received rape and death threats,” Watson posted in the photo earlier this year. “I was called a horrible freak show.”
To live like a man, Watson took the male hormone testosterone for years, which gives her a gruff voice and facial hair that she removes every two days
The researchers calculated the incidence of mastectomies by dividing the number of patients who underwent the surgery by the number of children who were assigned females aged 12 to 17 at birth within their system at the beginning of each year and during follow-up. .
The research has been published in the journal Annals of plastic surgery.
Although it only applies to California, a study from Vanderbilt University last month found that the number of breast reconstruction surgeries among trans youth had increased fivefold in recent years in the US.
There are currently no state or federal data.
As of September this year, transgender children from other states will be able to safely travel to California to receive gender-affirming care.
Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that would allow legal protections for transgender youth and their parents fleeing states where access to things like puberty blockers is limited.
Four states — Alabama, Arkansas, Texas and Arizona — enacted policies restricting children’s access to gender-affirming care during the summer.
This year, 15 states are considering implementing similar laws.
In October, the Florida Board of Medicine voted to ban gender-affirming care for trans teens.
The move blocks access to puberty blockers and hormone therapies for under-18s with gender dysphoria.
Board members said the decision was made based on the irreversibility of the drugs and the growing number of people choosing to “de-transition.”
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has long been critical of the use of medical treatments in trans children, previously saying doctors who operate on children “should be brought to justice.”
Several Republican states are imposing age limits or restricting access to puberty blockers or surgeries as the procedures become more common and a growing number of “de-transitioners” say they regret the irreversible surgeries.
According to the Williams Institute, a research center within the UCLA School of Law that specializes in LGBQT issues, approximately 300,000 teens identify as transgender in the United States.