The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) came out against transgender surgeries for minors Tuesday, arguing in a position statement that irreversible medical procedures for individuals with gender dysphoria should be delayed until the patient is at least 19 years old.
ASPS cited “growing uncertainty about the benefits of medical and surgical interventions” for transgender youths and assessments that have “identified limitations in study quality, consistency, and follow-up alongside emerging evidence of treatment complications and potential harms” in its latest guidance.
“ASPS concludes there is insufficient evidence demonstrating a favorable risk-benefit ratio for the pathway of gender-related endocrine and surgical interventions in children and adolescents,” read part of the organization’s position statement.
“ASPS recommends that surgeons delay gender-related breast/chest, genital, and facial surgery until a patient is at least 19 years old,” the group concluded.
ASPS, which represents more than 11,000 physicians worldwide, found evidence suggesting that a “substantial proportion of children with prepubertal onset gender dysphoria experience resolution or significant reduction of distress by the time they reach adulthood, absent medical or surgical intervention.”
The organization also cited an article from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from last year which found the “rapid expansion and implementation of a clinical protocol” for pediatric transgender medicine “lacked sufficient scientific and ethical justification.”
The organization noted that it continues to oppose the “criminalization of medical care” but urged plastic surgeons to “remain aware of state laws concerning transgender and gender-diverse individuals.”
HHS praised ASPS for “disavowing pediatric sex-rejecting procedures.”
“We commend the American Society of Plastic Surgeons for standing up to the overmedicalization lobby and defending sound science,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in a statement. “By taking this stand, they are helping protect future generations of American children from irreversible harm.”
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Administrator Mehmet Oz argued that ASPS was “placing itself on the right side of history by opposing these dangerous, unscientific experiments.”
“When the medical ethics textbooks of the future are written, they’ll look back on sex-rejecting procedures for minors the way we look back on lobotomies,” Oz said.
More than half of states (27) have enacted laws or policies in recent years limiting youth access to transgender medical procedures, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Of those states, 24 have imposed professional or legal penalties on health care practitioners who perform transgender medical procedures on minors.
Most are being challenged in court, according to KFF.
