T. Belman. I was totally ignorant and decided to investigate. I could no longer turn a blind eye to the subject. I learned that “0.6%-0.7% of the U.S. population – identify as transgender” of whom, 25% undergo surgery.
“Most people who choose these surgeries experience an improvement in their quality of life. Depending on the procedure, 94% to 100% of people report being satisfied with their surgery results. In general, people who work with a mental health provider before surgery tend to experience more satisfaction with their treatment results.”
Most Gender Dysphoria Established by Age 7, Study Finds
Cedars-Sinai Research Reveals Health Impact on Transgender People from Lack of Early Support and Intervention
Research by urologist Maurice Garcia, MD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Transgender Surgery and Health Program, shows that the majority of transgender patients experience gender dysphoria in early childhood. Photo by Cedars-Sinai.
Gender dysphoria manifests early in childhood and can persist for years before patients undergo counseling and treatment, a Cedars-Sinai study has found. The findings also reveal that untreated gender dysphoria can result in poor quality of life for transgender people, beginning in childhood and lasting throughout adolescence and adulthood.
Gender dysphoria refers to the strong discomfort or distress often caused by a discrepancy between a person’s gender identity and their biological sex assigned at birth, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – Fifth Edition. Gender dysphoria worsens as those experiencing it grapple with expected social gender roles and sex characteristics that do not align with, or reflect, their internal sense of gender identity.
Federal and state population studies from 2016 estimate that 1.4 million to 1.65 million U.S. adults – or 0.6%-0.7% of the U.S. population – identify as transgender, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.
The Cedars-Sinai study, published recently in JAMA Network Open, a journal of the American Medical Association, was led by urologist Maurice Garcia, MD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Transgender Surgery and Health Program. The study included 155 transgender women – those who identify as women but whose sex assigned at birth was male – and 55 transgender men – those who identify as men but whose sex assigned at birth was female. All of the participants were adult patients seeking gender-affirming surgery.
The study findings revealed that 73% of the transgender women and 78% of the transgender men first experienced gender dysphoria by age 7.
“While policies regarding transgender people’s rights are evolving, what is still clear and unchanged is the unequivocal need for accessible health care for transgender and gender nonconforming people of all ages,” Garcia said.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits workplace discrimination against gay and transgender workers, which could help transgender patients who rely on employer-sponsored health insurance.
That decision followed a rule finalized by the Trump Administration last week that overturns protections for transgender people against sex discrimination in health care. Those protections, established in the 2010 Affordable Care Act, generally allowed people to choose how they identify rather than be determined by the sex assigned at birth.“
The study authors also sought to compare the age of earliest general – non-gender-related – memories with the age of participants’ first gender dysphoria experiences. The study results showed that the mean age of the transgender women’s earliest general memory and first experience of gender dysphoria were 4.5 and 6.7 years, respectively. For transgender men they were 4.7 and 6.2 years, respectively.
Transgender women lived an average 27.1 years and transgender men 22.9 years before they began social transition and/or hormonal therapy treatments. In other words, their life experiences, beginning with their earliest memories, included the distress and negative health effects brought on by a lack of early counseling and support services that would have eased their gender transition period, Garcia said.
“All of the study participants came to my clinic asking for surgery and every one of them said they experienced gender dysphoria around the same early age,” Garcia said. “What they experienced earlier in life was not a ‘passing phase,’ which is often suggested about transgender people seeking surgery. They knew exactly when their gender dysphoria started. It’s like asking about your mom’s birthdate – you just know it.”
Garcia said he undertook the study because he was struck by the universality of early age onset of gender dysphoria his patients report, and the high rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm and feelings of hopelessness his patients say they experienced.
He said that he hopes that the results from the Cedars-Sinai study will draw attention to the plight of the transgender population and open the doors to greater societal acceptance of and earlier intervention for them. He said that the majority of transgender people who receive transition-related counseling and care “thrive.”
Garcia also noted the urgent need for support for families whose children are undergoing the transgender transition process.
“Family is the second patient in the room,” Garcia said. “Like their kids, parents often feel that they’re the only ones going through this experience. It’s our job to provide guidance and reassurance for them, too. Children and families should be aware of how care providers and parents can help, and the many options available for children early on and when they enter adulthood. They can receive the help they need to successfully navigate the future more confidently and smoothly.”
Read more on the Cedars-Sinai Blog: New Transgender Surgery and Health Program at Cedars-Sinai
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Gender Affirmation (Confirmation) or Sex Reassignment Surgery
OVERVIEW
What is sex reassignment surgery?
Sex reassignment surgery refers to procedures that help people transition to their self-identified gender. Today, many people prefer to use the terms gender affirmation or confirmation surgery.
Why is gender affirmation surgery done?
People may have surgery so that their physical body matches their gender identity. People who choose gender affirmation surgery do so because they experience gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria is the distress that occurs when your sex assigned at birth does not match your gender identity.
What is the difference between transgender and nonbinary?
The term transgender describes someone whose gender identity is different than their sex assigned at birth. Gender nonbinary describes someone whose gender identity does not fit within traditional female or male categories. People in either of these categories may opt for gender affirmation medical treatment or surgery.
What are the types of transgender surgery?
Gender-affirming surgery gives transgender people a body that aligns with their gender. It may involve procedures on the face, chest or genitalia. Common transgender surgery options include:
- Facial reconstructive surgery to make facial features more masculine or feminine.
- Chest or “Top” surgery to remove breast tissue for a more masculine appearance or enhance breast size and shape for a more feminine appearance.
- Genital or “Bottom” surgery to transform and reconstruct the genitalia.
Is gender affirmation surgery the only treatment for gender dysphoria?
No. Surgery is just one option. Not everyone who is transgender or nonbinary chooses to have surgery. Depending on your age and preferences, you may choose:
- Hormone therapy to increase masculine or feminine characteristics, such as your amount of body hair or vocal tone.
- Puberty blockers to prevent you from going through puberty.
- Voice therapy to adjust your voice or tone or help with communication skills, such as introducing yourself with your pronouns.
People may also socially transition to their true gender with or without surgery. As part of social transitioning, you might:
- Adopt a new name.
- Choose different pronouns.
- Present as your gender identity by wearing different clothing or changing your hairstyle.
How common is gender affirmation surgery?
Surveys report that around 1 in 4 transgender and nonbinary people choose gender affirmation surgery.
PROCEDURE DETAILS
What happens before gender affirmation surgery?
Before surgery, you should work with a trusted healthcare provider. A healthcare provider can help you understand the risks and benefits of all surgery options.
Many insurance companies require you to submit specific documentation before they will cover a gender-affirming surgery. This documentation includes:
- Health records that show consistent gender dysphoria.
- Letter of support from a mental health provider, such as a social worker or psychiatrist.
What happens during transgender surgery?
What happens during surgery varies depending on the procedure. You may choose facial surgery, top surgery, bottom surgery or a combination of these operations.
Facial surgery may change your:
- Cheekbones: Many transgender women have injections to enhance the cheekbones.
- Chin: You may opt to soften or more prominently define your chin’s angles.
- Jaw: A surgeon may shave down your jawbone or use fillers to enhance your jaw.
- Nose: You may have a rhinoplasty, surgery to reshape the nose.
If you are a transgender woman (assigned male at birth or AMAB), other surgeries may include:
- Adam’s apple reduction.
- Placement of breast implants (breast augmentation).
- Removal of the penis and scrotum (penectomy and orchiectomy).
- Construction of a vagina and labia (feminizing genitoplasty).
If you are a transgender man (assigned female at birth or AFAB), you may have surgeries that involve:
- Breast reduction or mastectomy.
- Removal of the ovaries and uterus (oophorectomy and hysterectomy).
- Construction of a penis and scrotum (metoidioplasty, phalloplasty and scrotoplasty).
What happens after gender affirmation surgery?
Recovery times vary based on what procedures or combination of procedures you have:
- Cheek and nose surgery: Swelling lasts for around two to four weeks.
- Chin and jaw surgery: Most swelling fades within two weeks. It may take up to four months for swelling to disappear.
- Chest surgery: Swelling and soreness last for one to two weeks. You will need to avoid vigorous activity for at least one month.
- Bottom surgery: Most people don’t resume usual activities until at least six weeks after surgery. You will need weekly follow-up with your healthcare provider for a few months. These visits ensure you are healing well.
It’s important to understand that, for most people, surgery is only one part of the transitioning process. After surgery, you should continue to work with a therapist or counselor. This professional can support you with social transitioning and your mental health.
RISKS / BENEFITS
What are the benefits of gender affirmation surgery?
Research has shown that transgender individuals who choose gender-affirming surgery experience long-term mental health benefits. In one study, a person’s odds of needing mental health treatment declined by 8% each year after the gender-affirming procedure.
What are the risks or complications of gender affirmation surgery?
Different procedures carry different risks. For example, individuals who have bottom surgery may have changes to their sexual sensation, or trouble with bladder emptying. In general, significant complications are rare, as long as an experienced surgeon is performing the procedure.
With any surgery, there is a small risk of complications, including:
- Bleeding.
- Infection.
- Side effects of anesthesia.
RECOVERY AND OUTLOOK
What is the outlook for people who have gender affirmation surgery?
Most people who choose these surgeries experience an improvement in their quality of life. Depending on the procedure, 94% to 100% of people report being satisfied with their surgery results. In general, people who work with a mental health provider before surgery tend to experience more satisfaction with their treatment results.
WHEN TO CALL THE DOCTOR
When should I see my healthcare provider?
After surgery, you should see your healthcare provider if you experience:
- Bleeding for more than a few days after surgery.
- Pain that doesn’t go away after several weeks.
- Signs of infection, such as a wound that changes color or doesn’t heal.
A note from Cleveland Clinic
Gender affirmation procedures help people transition to their self-identified gender. Gender affirmation surgery may involve operations to change the face, chest or genitalia. You may choose to have one type of surgery or a combination of procedures. Before and after surgery, it’s important to work with a mental health provider. Research shows that having a trusted therapist makes you more likely to be satisfied with your surgery results.
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Reuters ‘Youth in Transition’ Report Plots to Prevent Children From ‘Detransition’
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Melanie Phillips just published Lost Girls
Perhaps the most horrifying aspect of the transgender cult is the way in which the care of damaged children has turned into the abuse of damaged children.
There is ample evidence that most children who believe they are trapped in a body belonging to the wrong biological sex also tend to suffer from a range of other psychological problems, including autism, eating disorders and depression, in addition to confusion and distress over homosexual feelings.
What these children obviously need is therapeutic treatment for these disorders and help to achieve the psychological balance that has become so badly distorted. Instead, they have been subjected to often irreversible bodily alteration that leaves many if not most infinitely more damaged, both physically and psychologically.
Some American research suggests that suicide rates among children have spiked in states where they can access hormones and puberty blockers without their parents’ consent — and countless parents have been demonised as “transphobic” if they oppose such dangerous, devastating and inappropriate interventions.
By any civilised standard, this shocking betrayal by such therapists of their professional and ethical obligations to their patients — informatively discussed here, for example, by Kathleen Stock — should have resulted in their being struck off if not jailed.
Now another dimension to this horror has been identified by the feminist activist, Julie Bindel. On Unherd, she reveals a telling and important correlation — between the number of girls who have been the victims of sexual abuse in a British town, and the number of girls from that town who have been referred for transgender procedures.
This opens up a whole new can of worms…
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I don’t see how people who completely restructure their original (the ones they were born with) genitalia can experience any sexual satisfaction at all afterwards.
I mean, this is a physical/biological thing (mostly), it is not all in the head.
Do they even think about it before they go for surgery and hormone treatments?
Of course this is a mental health issue, as others have commented. Transforming the body of a child or adult by surgery to resemble the body of the opposite sex is like trying to graft on yellow and white pieces of material because the patient believes he or she is a scrambled egg! We enjoy our children’s make believe games, but at supper time the firefighter’s uniform or the doctor’s white coat must come off and the child return to normality. I cannot believe how evil this transgender trend is, but follow the money – huge sums are being made out of exploiting people’s mental illness and encouraging them to believe their psychotic take on reality. And by the way, gender is not “assigned” at birth – the sex of a baby is observed and correctly noted. Big difference.
Melanie Phillips just published Lost Girls
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Trans activists appropriate intersex people for their cause, but intersex conditions such as ambiguous genitalia or nonstandard chromosomes, are not transgenderism. Most transgenders have standard genitalia and chromosomes. Intersex activists have spoken out against the transactivist appropriation of their medical condition.
Mayo Clinic
The article, which is propaganda, doesn’t mention the high correlation of transgenderism with autism, i.e. these doctors are treating the wrong condition. Also, early treatment can result in the complete suppression of sexuality. For instance, Jazz Jennings, the poster child for early male to female trans surgery, is basically a eunuch who doesn’t experience adult sexuality, even though he is now a young man who has been castrated and feminized. This is the typical result the doctors don’t tell these people, they will be sexless for life. Better to be an effeminate gay man than a eunuch.
If anyone cares to post links to critical articles, please do. What other studies are there?
Transgenderism is what happens when a mental illness is transformed into a civil rights movement. Suddenly everyone is required by law to go along with these crazy ideas.
When schizophrenia is declared a civil right will we all be required to acknowledge that we too hear the voices?
It’s obvious that what Ted published is propaganda put out by people who make a lot of money mutilating people.
Medical procedures to change genders should not be allowed until people are well into adulthood. The brain continues to grow and change until age 25.
What’s scary is the medicalization of this condition in children. I recently saw a a video of an 18-year-old woman who had NO psychological counseling. She and her parents were railroaded into medical treatment (first hormones, then a double mastectomy when she was 15). This is a crime. She now realizes that she wants to be a woman and has detransitioned, but she has a deep voice, and she will never be able to nurse her children.
Other countries are realizing the harm this causes to children. The British Tavistock Clinic, which specialized in gender transition for children, has closed its doors.
Also not mentioned is that the suicide rate for people who have already transitioned is 9 times the rate of suicide overall.
Transgenderism is a mental illness. Instead of accommodating these people, or even worse, celebrating their mental illness, they should be sent for treatment.
How is humoring crazy people by mutilating them with surgery, “healthcare?”