The number of gender surgeries in the US nearly tripled in the three years to 2019 — driven by insurance policy changes introduced by former President Barack Obama, a new study says.
Only about 4,550 Americans had such sex-reassignment surgery in 2016 — a number that will rise to more than 13,000 by 2019, according to a Columbia University study published Wednesday in JAMA Network Open.
“Consistent with previous studies, we identified a remarkable increase in the number” of such procedures, study author Dr. Jason Wright wrote.
“These findings show that the number of procedures performed in the US has increased dramatically, nearly tripling from 2016 to 2019.”
The increase follows the number of procedures doubling at least twice previously, between 2000 to 2005 and again from 2006 to 2011, Wright wrote, citing previous studies.
Transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney underwent cosmetic surgery in December as part of his transition
The surgery was designed to make her face look more feminine
The tripling of cases seen in the study “is likely due in part to federal and state laws requiring coverage of transition-related care,” Wright wrote of the Obama administration’s policy to expand insurance coverage for transgender care.
The study included breast and chest procedures, genital reconstructive procedures and other facial and cosmetic surgery procedures. It does not take into account the use of puberty blockers or hormone treatments.
The increase declined slightly in 2020, to 12,800 procedures — still nearly triple the 2016 figure — which “likely reflects the COVID-19 pandemic,” Wright wrote of the last year examined in his report.
In total, researchers about 48,000 people underwent surgery in the five years from 2016 to 2020.
Dr. Geoffrey Stiller visits a patient, Sarah Bergman, who recently underwent a vaginoplasty, a surgical procedure that addresses gender reassignment. The Washington Post via Getty Images
At the same time, the total number of “health system encounters for gender identity disorder” increased from 12,855 in 2016 to 38,470 in 2020.
“Rapid improvement . . . suggests that there is a greater need for clinicians knowledgeable in the care of transgender individuals and with the necessary expertise to perform [gender-affirming surgery] procedures,” the report concluded.
To conduct the study, researchers analyzed records of both inpatient and outpatient procedures from two national surgical databases.
Doctors found that more than half of the patients who sought treatment from 2016 to 2020 were between the ages of 19 and 30, while 22 percent were between the ages of 31 and 40 and only about 8 percent were between the ages of 12 and 18.
That increase declined slightly in 2020, to 12,800 procedures — still nearly triple the 2016 figure — which “likely reflects the COVID-19 pandemic,” Wright wrote of the last year examined in his report. Universal Images Group via Getty Images
“This is consistent with previous work showing that most patients first experience gender dysphoria at a young age with approximately three-quarters of patients reporting gender dysphoria by age seven,” Wright wrote.
“These patients then lived for an average of 23 years for transgender men and 27 years for transgender women before starting gender reassignment treatment.”
Among the youngest patients, the most common surgeries were breast and chest procedures, with more than 3,000 preteens and teens undergoing surgery over the five years examined.
Breast surgery is also the most common type of surgery performed in all age groups, followed by genital surgery – the number of which increases with age.
The study comes as a growing number of Republican-led states seek to ban gender-affirming procedures among teenagers.
The effort, however, faced a growing backlash.
In June, a federal judge in Arkansas overturned the ban, and Senate Democrats voted against legislation that would have prevented the military’s health benefits program from covering sex-gendering procedures on children that could result in sterilization.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
