Is the American Society of Plastic Surgeons turning their back on paediatric gender medicine?

Looks like it -- but they still seem like gender ideologues to me...

Aug 14, 2024

From the ASPS website, plasticsurgery.org

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), which represents nearly all plastic surgeons in the USA and Canada, has said that they do not endorse any current standards of care for gender dysphoric adolescents due to “considerable uncertainty” over long-term outcomes and concerns about low quality evidence backing the care.

This is according to an investigative report by Leor Sapir of the Manhattan Institute, a think-tank that seeks to “offer constructive alternatives to identity politics.” Sapir has now also published the email sent to him by the ASPS.

Sapir reported that the ASPS is conducting an internal review of care guidelines and said that the organization is aware that the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) “suppressed systematic reviews of evidence” when creating their latest standards, known as “standards of care 8” or “SOC8.”

The WPATH guidelines were criticized in the UK’s Cass Review, an independent and whistle-blower initiated review of pediatric gender medicine, which found that numerous health organizations set “standards” via referring to each other, rather than to actual evidence.

More recently, WPATH was outed in unsealed court documents for caving to political pressure from, among others, transgender identified male and US Assistant Secretary for Health, Rachel Levine, when setting care standards. Levine successfully advocated for removing all age minimums from the latest version of the WPATH guidelines.

Despite the ASPS’s reported reservations about pediatric gender medicine, the group still appears to endorse (WPATH) guidelines and members—at least for adult patients.

On the ASPS website, transgender identified patients are encouraged to look for surgeons belonging to the disgraced organization.

“Equally as important is selecting a board-certified plastic surgeon who is a member of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). Surgeons in WPATH have usually received additional training in the medical care of the transgender patient, and have expressed a strong desire to treat members of the transgender population,” reads the site.

In 2021, the ASPS issued a challenge to social media company Facebook for allegedly censoring their member’s posts specifically used to advertise “gender affirming” surgeries to the public.

The ASPS sent a letter to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, accusing the company of censorship for refusing to allow their members to advertise the (often gruesome) surgeries. In it, they claimed that “gender affirming” care is not a political issue. Yikes…

“In the letter, ASPS stressed that the delivery of gender affirming care is not a political issue, but rather a health care issue,” said the group. “ASPS concluded the letter by urging Facebook's leaders to review the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH)'s Standards of Care publication to ‘better understand the importance and role of gender affirming care in the US healthcare system,’” they wrote.

The latest news of ASPS reviewing their allegiance to WPATH standards for pediatric care represents a marked departure from their previous advocacy, which aligned heavily with the organization.

Sapir, in his investigative report, noted that several ASPS members are now being sued by former patients: “Almost two dozen lawsuits by detransitioners against clinics and clinicians are currently underway, and at least seven of the defendants in these cases are ASPS members. One, Winnie Tong, performed a double mastectomy on Kayla Lovdahl in 2017, when she was only 13,” wrote Sapir.

It is quite possible that the threat of further lawsuits—not to mention the international community jumping ship on pediatric gender medicine—is what is causing the ASPS to make an about face on this issue.

Other surgeons never fell for pediatric gender medicine to begin with: “[For what it’s worth,] as a plastic surgeon I’ve been against hormone therapy and surgery in minors since day one. Desist rates are quite high in kids, and they can’t legally consent to these therapies that are irreversible and life-altering,” posted Texas plastic surgeon—and ASPS member—Bruce Hermann on X.