(USNewsMag.com) – After we’ve been repeatedly told by mainstream news that gender surgeries do not happen to minors, a doctor in Oregon has been in the news for performing surgeries on kids. Dr. Blair Peters is a Canadian-trained surgeon working at Oregon Health & Science University.
He announced in a now-deleted April 2022 tweet that he had performed “top surgery” on three young adults. Top surgery is a radical mastectomy, which removes a woman’s breasts to give her chest a more masculine appearance.
In a recent interview, Dr. Peters noted the complexity of the surgery issue but predicted an increase in awareness in the upcoming years. Information regarding the long-term outcomes of puberty suppression or surgery is not widely known. He’s discussed the use of a surgical robot, including on young patients, to keep up with the high volume of genital gender-confirming surgeries.
Dr. Peters acknowledges that children cannot consent to post-surgery procedures or sex surgeries. Boys transitioning into girls face the notable challenge of using a dilator to prevent the “vaginal” canal from closing.
The Convention of States Action and The Trafalgar Group conducted a national survey in October 2022, polling over 1,000 likely 2022 election voters. They asked if individuals under the age of 18 should wait until they reach adulthood to use puberty blockers or undergo irreversible gender reassignment procedures.
78.7% of all respondents from various political leanings agreed that kids should wait. 53.2% of Democrats, 84.6% of independents, and 96.8% of Republican voters agreed that minors should not make a medical transition until they are legal adults.
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health has updated their recommendations, allowing for hormone treatment to begin at 14 and certain surgeries at 15 or 17, earlier than previous guidelines. Despite acknowledging potential risks, the group says withholding early treatment is unethical and harmful.
Dr. Peters is vocally against putting restrictions on surgeries for teens with gender dysphoria, and gender clinic physicians have claimed that “anti-trans” legislation is harmful and unscientific.
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