Gender ideologues’ false narratives and monstrous practices were never a match for common sense, close scrutiny, and ethical review. Nevertheless they were championed in recent years by radical politicians, educators, health professionals, and clerics at the expense of confused minors and mentally compromised adults.
It appears that at least one major professional medical association that previously supported so-called “gender-affirming care” is belatedly correcting course in the wake of a federal crackdown, an overwhelming shift in public opinion, and proof that the sex-rejection regime is vulnerable to civil lawsuits.
‘Plastic surgeons should adopt a posture of heightened caution … recognizing that their role is not simply technical but ethical.’
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons, a group founded in 1931 that represents over 11,000 physician members, claimed in 2019 that it firmly believed “that plastic surgery services can help gender dysphoria patients align their bodies with whom they know themselves to be and improve their overall mental health and well-being.” The ASPS further criticized Republican-supported restrictions on so-called “gender-affirming care.”
The surgeon group signaled a major change of heart on Wednesday in a policy statement regarding its views “on breast/chest, genital, and facial gender surgery for individuals under the age of 19.”
The ASPS noted that in recent years, “a number of international health systems and professional bodies initiated formal re-examinations of earlier clinical practice assumptions in response to patient presentation and a growing uncertainty about the benefits of medical and surgical interventions.”
“Systematic reviews and evidence reassessments have subsequently identified limitations in study quality, consistency, and follow-up alongside emerging evidence of treatment complications and potential harms,” added the ASPS.
The ASPS made repeated reference both to the United Kingdom’s damning 388-page Cass Review, which underscored that the sex-rejection regime was built on weak and unreliable evidence, and to the Department of Health and Human Services’ exhaustive peer-reviewed 410-page 2025 report, titled “Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices,” which elaborated further on the pseudoscientific and harmful nature of so-called “gender-affirming care.”
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The surgeons’ group noted that these reports and other scientific literature “have contributed to a clearer understanding of potential harms, while also highlighting limitations of the available evidence, including gaps in documenting long-term physical, psychological, and psychosocial outcomes.”
In addition to enjoying greater clarity about the ruinous and irreversible nature of “gender-affirming care” and the lack of quality evidence to support its practice, the ASPS noted that “available evidence suggests that a substantial proportion of children with prepubertal onset gender dysphoria experience resolution or significant reduction of distress by the time they reach adulthood, absent medical or surgical intervention.”
The ASPS noted in conclusion that “there is insufficient evidence demonstrating a favorable risk-benefit ratio for the pathway of gender-related endocrine and surgical interventions in children and adolescents” and recommended that surgeons “delay gender-related breast/chest, genital, and facial surgery until a patient is at least 19 years old.”
The surgeon group indicated further that “plastic surgeons should adopt a posture of heightened caution, enhanced documentation, and explicit uncertainty disclosure, recognizing that their role is not simply technical but ethical.”
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., among the many who celebrated the ASPS’ disavowal of child sex-rejecting practices, stated, “We commend the American Society of Plastic Surgeons for standing up to the overmedicalization lobby and defending sound science.”
“By taking this stand, they are helping protect future generations of American children from irreversible harm,” added Kennedy.
Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, chairman at the medical advocacy group Do No Harm, said in a statement obtained by Blaze News, “High praise to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons for taking an important step toward ending the unscientific and harmful practice of sex-rejecting procedures on minors.”
“The ASPS becomes the first major medical organization to support evidence-based and ethical medicine and reject, in their words, these harmful and irreversible procedures,” continued Goldfarb. “The ASPS’s thoughtful, scientific, and well-reasoned statement today is a model for other medical organizations — namely the Endocrine Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and others — to follow and disavow their previous support for experimental and unscientific interventions.”
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The ASPS issued its policy statement just days after a woman who underwent a sex-rejection surgery as a minor was awarded $2 million in the first medical malpractice lawsuit brought by a detransitioner to go to trial.
Fox Varian, 22, sued her New York-based psychologist and plastic surgeon, and their respective employers, after regretting the 2019 surgery that claimed her healthy breasts.
Dr. Miriam Grossman, the board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist who authored the 2023 book “Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrist’s Guide Out of the Madness,” told Blaze News in 2024 that such lawsuits would help to, at the very least, make practitioners “think twice before they pick up a scalpel and remove the healthy breasts” of a young girl.
“It could be the malpractice carriers will stop covering — if they have to pay out huge amounts, they may think twice about covering the malpractice of these surgeons,” added Grossman.
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