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2h ago

Plastic Surgeons Group Urges No Gender-Affirming Surgeries for Minors, Recommends Waiting Until 19

The society cites low-certainty research from recent U.S. and U.K. reviews that question long-term benefits for teens.

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One of the surgery rooms is seen through the door's window at the newly built crowdfunded children's hospital, in Bucharest, Romania on January 31, 2024. The brand-new nine-floor medical centre to treat children with cancer is the first hospital in Romania financed exclusively through private donations, after a civil group took matters into its own hands in the eastern European country with the EU's lowest health expenditure. The 53-million euro ($57 million) cost of building the hospital, which opened in April, was raised entirely through donations from 350,000 people and almost 8,000 companies. (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP) (Photo by DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP via Getty Images)
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Overview

  • ASPS advised delaying chest, genital, and facial procedures until at least age 19, concluding the risk–benefit profile for minors is not supported by current evidence.
  • HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz praised the statement as the administration advances federal restrictions on pediatric gender services.
  • The announcement is a policy position rather than a clinical guideline, urges surgeons to consider varying state laws, and opposes criminal or punitive approaches in favor of professional self-regulation.
  • The stance diverges from organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and WPATH that support cautious case-by-case adolescent care, making ASPS the first major U.S. medical society to narrow guidance.
  • Fewer than roughly 1,000 minors receive gender-related surgeries each year in the U.S., mostly mastectomies, and the move follows a $2 million malpractice verdict in New York involving a teen mastectomy.