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Gender dysphoria is a concern where the Catholic Medical Association (CMA) and US plastic surgeons agree.
Plastic surgeons are now questioning the wisdom of providing surgical intervention for teens experiencing gender dysphoria.
“From our first days in plastic surgery residency training, we were taught that there are no surgical solutions to psychological problems and that remains true today” one plastic surgeon says.
The Catholic Star Herald says the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) told the Manhattan Institute’s quarterly City Journal about their concerns in performing “chest and genital surgical interventions for the treatment of adolescents with gender dysphoria”.
Author Leor Sapir quoted ASPS as saying “the existing evidence base (for the practice) is viewed as low quality/low certainty”.
There is “considerable uncertainty as to the long-term efficacy” of such procedures.
Lawsuits
“Plastic surgeons are increasingly finding themselves in the hot seat of gender medicine lawsuits” Sapir reported.
Those seeking to reverse the interventions are filing lawsuits.
There are “at least seven” ASPS members named as defendants in almost “two dozen lawsuits” Sapir added.
One plaintiff was 13 when an ASPS member performed a double mastectomy on her.
The plaintiff had received less than two hours evaluation by the surgeon and a psychologist before the procedure, Sapir wrote.
This was despite the plaintiff demonstrating a long history of mental and emotional distress.
Sapir’s article said ASPS comments marked the “first big fracture” in the apparent US medical consensus over gender intervention for teens.
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and the Endocrine Society was strongly in favour of that consensus among US medical professionals.
New insights
In Europe, a trend to halt the use of puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries in adolescents with gender dysphoria is emerging.
The Cass Review – an independent analysis of the UK’s National Health Service – discovered evidence supporting gender intervention for children and teens was both insufficient and fraught.
The Review also noted WPATH and the Endocrine Society had been citing each other’s statements rather than “conducting a scientific appraisal of the evidence”.
Psychology vs ideology
The WPATH, the Endocrine Society and the American Medical Association are making “the suffering of these patients worse, and are contrary to the treatments now adopted in New Zealand, Australia and many European countries”.
“These countries have prioritised psychological care over medical gender-affirming interventions” the Catholic Medical Association says.
The Association explains gender dysphoria is a psychological diagnosis.
Gender ideology however “is a belief system based on a false human anthropology which undermines the intrinsic value and uniqueness of the human person”.
The Catholic Medical Association says “gender ideology is blind to the abundant scientific data already published on the treatment of gender dysphoria”.
Physicians promoting it ignore the harm this belief causes to thousands of confused young patients. Those patients deserve compassionate, excellent medical care the Association says. It says systematic studies show compassionate psychological care enables 85-90 percent of teens to resolve their dysphoria without “harmful and irreversible effects…”.
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