(LifeSiteNews) — A new study released this week shows an alarming increase in the number of so-called “sex change” surgeries committed in the United States. Specifically, these radical procedures nearly tripled between 2016 and 2019, with a significant number of young people obtaining chest mutilation or reconstruction.
Three medical doctors affiliated with Columbia University and the University of Southern California released a cohort study examining how many surgical procedures committed in the name of “gender affirmation” have occurred in the U.S. during a three-year period. It was published on Wednesday in the JAMA Network Open journal.
“Breast and chest surgery” were reportedly “the most common class of procedures performed overall,” while fewer “genital reconstructive procedures” were committed, most often “among older individuals.” While most of the gender-confused Americans included in the study were young adults, researchers noted that “3,678 (7.7%) were aged 12 to 18 years,” contradicting claims from some LGBT activists that such irreversible procedures are not being committed on minors.
The study, titled “National Estimates of Gender-Affirming [sic] Surgery in the US,” included 48,019 Americans who received some form of mutilating procedures between 2016 and 2019. Researchers considered “data from 2016 to 2020 in the Nationwide Ambulatory Surgery Sample and the National Inpatient Sample.”
“Patients with diagnosis codes for gender identity disorder, transsexualism, or a personal history of sex reassignment were identified, and the performance of GAS [gender-affirming surgery], including breast and chest procedures, genital reconstructive procedures, and other facial and cosmetic surgical procedures, were identified.”
According to the results, “25,099 patients (52.3%) were aged 19 to 30 years, 10,476 (21.8%) were aged 31 to 40, and 3,678 (7.7%) were aged 12 to 18 years.” In general, researchers said, “the overall number of health system encounters for gender identity disorder rose from 13,855 in 2016 to 38,470 in 2020.” Billing codes for this disorder saw “a consistent rise” in relation to surgical intervention between 2016, when surgeries made up 32.9% of the billable diagnosed disorders and 2019, when it reached 37.1%. A decline to 33.3% in 2020 is “likely reflective of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“Among patients undergoing ambulatory surgical procedures, 37,394 (80.3%) of the surgical procedures included gender-affirming [sic] surgical procedures. For those with hospital admissions with gender identity disorder, 10,625 (11.8%) of admissions were for GAS [sic].”
Fifty-six and six-tenths percent of surgical intervention for gender-confused individuals were breast and chest procedures, with the “most common individual procedure [being] breast reconstruction.” Genital reconstruction was the next most popular category, making up 35.1% of the surgeries, with hysterectomy being the highest in demand at 9.3%.
“When stratified by the type of procedure performed, breast and chest procedures made up the greatest percentage of the surgical interventions in younger patients while genital surgical procedures were greater in older patients,” researchers wrote, specifying that 87.4% of 12-18-year-old gender-confused individuals who sought surgical intervention had breast or chest surgeries compared with the 11% who “underwent genital surgery.”
The percentage of individuals who pursued breast or chest surgery decreased in older patients while genital surgeries increased. Researchers noted that fewer young people pursue genital procedures because of “the increased complexity of genital surgery compared with breast and chest surgery as well as the definitive nature of removal of the reproductive organs.”
Additionally, while 60.5% of individuals who obtained these procedures used private insurance, 25.3% used Medicaid. Researchers also noted that 15% of patients experienced depression. An overwhelming majority of patients (42,467 or 88.4%) obtained the surgeries “at urban, teaching hospitals” while “a disproportionate number of patients” lived in Western United States (22,037 or 45.9%) and in the Northeast (12,396 or 25.8%).
The study is the latest evidence of an apparent steady rise in gender confusion that, additional research has shown, is largely influenced by peer pressure and mental health issues as well as social media influence. Over the years, data on the impact of hormonal and surgical intervention for gender-confused individuals has been misrepresented by medical professionals and mainstream media to present a skewed perception of positive mental health results after intervention.
Healthcare professionals and academics have repeatedly critiqued their counterparts for too broadly stating that such irreversible measures improve mental health. Mainstream media has also been rebuked for ignoring serious negative effects of the so-called “treatment,” including evidence that cross-sex hormone use often results in higher rates of suicidality. Prominent conservative journalists such as Tucker Carlson have made a point of calling out this false narrative.
One group of researchers even issued a correction and apology for claiming their study supported medical intervention for gender confusion, an announcement they refuted by admitting that those who undergo such surgeries “were more likely to be treated for anxiety disorders.”
More recently, a psychiatrist published an academic study that debunks the “deeply flawed” research methods that are used to draw support for medical interventions among gender-confused individuals. Similarly, LifeSiteNews reported in July that a medical article claiming to expose the “misinformation” being spread about the dangers of so-called “gender transitions” merely doubled down on research that has been criticized for being faulty or misrepresented.
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