The co-director at Boston Children’s Hospital’s Center for Gender Surgery co-wrote an article that declared a need for increasing training efforts for gender-affirming surgeries.
The center performs mastectomies on teenagers as young as 15; the hospital admitted on its website (later deleted) that 17-year-olds could receive vaginoplasties and 18-year-olds could receive phalloplasties or metoidioplasties (surgical creations of a penis for a female).
“Physicians who provide GAC [gender affirming care] will face a greater burden due to constraints in certain states and increasing demands for care,” plastic and reconstructive surgeon Oren Ganor, the co-director of the center, co-wrote in an article published in the March 14 edition of The Journal of the American Medical Association. “Especially as certain states work to criminalize GAC for adolescents, there will be an increased flux of patients traveling to seek care in states with more open legislation.”
“Although the legal landscape may be more favorable in these states, the capacity to treat these patients does not match the demand,” the co-authors continued. “How, then, can these states expand clinician capacity and improve competencies in treating transgender patients? The medical community can take several steps to improve capacity for this patient population. … With certain states restricting gender-affirming surgeries, residency programs in states with more favorable regulations must ensure they increase training efforts to accommodate increased caseloads of gender-affirming surgeries that will likely result.”
The co-authors cited “rampant transphobia in the U.S.,” claiming it “sometimes results in increased violence against transgender people plus intimidation and threats of violence against those who provide their care.”
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“It is important to recognize that for many gender-diverse young people, the decision to engage in gender-affirming care can be lifesaving and life-changing. Without this care, gender-diverse youth can experience severe distress, anxiety, and depression,” the hospital told Fox News Digital.
“[A]ny decisions about gender-affirming care should be made after a rigorous evaluation process that involves a psychologist or social worker, a patient’s doctor and their parents or guardians.”
A hospital spokesperson clarified, “for surgical consultation, you must be 17 years of age and between 18 and 35 years of age at the time of surgery. We have since updated this to reflect the protocols for the practice, which we have always adhered to (no surgery under 18 years of age).”