Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 30, 2023 / 13:45 pm
Patients between the ages of 12 and 18 accounted for nearly 8% of transgender surgeries from 2016 through 2020, according to estimates provided in a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
During this time period, researchers estimate that about 3,678 Americans between ages 12 and 18 received transgender surgeries. The study, published Aug. 23, was led by Dr. Jason D. Wright from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Most of the surgeries for patients in this age range were breast and chest procedures, such as the removal of healthy breasts in female patients or the addition of prosthetic breasts in male patients to facilitate a gender transition. More than 87% of the young patients, which is about 3,215 people, received these surgeries.
Transgender genital surgeries, which remove the healthy genitals of the patient and replace them with artificial genitals that resemble the opposite sex, were far less common but were still performed on more than 11% of patients between the ages of 12 and 18. This accounted for about 405 people.