- The American Society of Plastic Surgeons urges a halt to irreversible gender surgery for minors.
- Its position hopes to address rapid changes in adolescent gender dysphoria treatment.
- Some, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, disagree with the decision.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons has released a position statement urging an end to irreversible gender-related surgery for minors. In the statement, it calls for no such decision or surgery to be done for patients younger than 19 years of age.
The group, founded in 1931, has more than 11,000 plastic surgeon members.
The summary section of the statement, issued Feb. 3, notes that clinical management of adolescents and other minors who have gender dysphoria or incongruence “has undergone rapid change,” and noted the intent of the statement is to provide some guidance.
It covers breast/chest, genital and facial gender surgery for those younger than 19.
The news comes as a young woman just won a $2 million settlement after suing over a double mastectomy she underwent at age 16. According to the American Bar Association journal, the ABA Journal, it was a “legal first.”
The ABA Journal said that Fox Varian, now 22, of Yorktown Heights, New York, was “assigned female at birth, but later identified as a man. Varian now identifies as a woman, an example of a process known as detransitioning.”
In announcing its position, the plastic surgeons group said its foundational principle is “respect for patient dignity and compassionate care.” But it says the evidence for benefits of gender surgery for minors is low quality.
“This position statement is not a retroactive judgment but a forward-looking response to evolving evidence. It is intended to support continued learning and ethical practice within the specialty,” the statement says in a section to plastic surgeons. It adds that the group has “confidence in the competence, professionalism and ethical intent of its members.”
On X, The Washington Post noted that this is the “first major medical association in the U.S. to narrow its guidance on pediatric gender care.”
Response to group’s position
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services leadership released a statement praising the decision.
“We commend the American Society of Plastic Surgeons for standing up to the over-medicalization lobby and defending sound science,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said. “By taking this stand, they are helping protect future generations of American children from irreversible harm.”
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz added, in the release, that the position put the group “on the right side of history by opposing these dangerous, unscientific experiments.”
The health and human services news release noted that “when considering the principle of autonomy,” its own previous study of the issue concluded that “respect for patient autonomy does not negate clinicians’ professional and ethical obligation to protect and promote their patients’ health. The ASPS position statement similarly finds that adolescent autonomy does not obligate a medical professional to provide sex-rejecting procedures not supported by evidence.”
The Washington Post cited research in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association, showing that fewer than 1,000 minors have such surgeries a year “and the vast majority of the procedures are mastectomies, not genital surgeries.”
The Post also reported that the group’s statement is a reversal from 2019, when the plastic surgeons organization “opposed attempts by states to restrict transition care,” and said plastic surgery services can help gender dysphoria patients align their bodies with whom they know themselves to be and improve their overall mental health and well-being.
Per the article, “The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend transition surgeries primarily for adults but say adolescents can receive them on a case-by-case basis.”
Not everyone agrees with the plastic surgeon group’s position statement.
The American Academy of Pediatrics’ president, Andrew Racine, said in a statement that his organization “continues to hold to the principle that patients, their families and their physicians — not politicians — should be the ones to make decisions together about what care is best for them.”