People who underwent gender-affirming chest reconstruction surgeries as adults have virtually no regrets years later and overwhelmingly high levels of satisfaction with their decision to have the procedure, according to a study published Wednesday in JAMA Surgery. The results were so clear, in fact, that the study authors were unable to perform the complex statistical analyses they had planned due to the striking uniformity in the survey responses.
Overall, this study on adults adds to a limited, but growing body of data suggesting that gender-affirming care is “essential” and potentially life-saving care that comes with significant benefits for people who are transgender and gender diverse. Collectively, this is why major medical organizations—including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, and the Endocrine Society—advocate for protecting access to evidence-based gender-affirming care, which is a broad, sometimes misconstrued, term.
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The results were so clear, in fact, that the study authors were unable to perform the complex statistical analyses they had planned due to the striking uniformity in the survey responses.
In the meantime, while researchers collect more data, the AAP reaffirmed its support of gender-affirming care and highlighted that it “opposes any laws or regulations that discriminate against transgender and gender-diverse individuals, or that interfere in the doctor-patient relationship.”
Of the total 235 patients, none requested or underwent a reversal treatment, and about a quarter of responders and non-responders went on to have additional gender-affirming procedures after their chest reconstruction surgeries.
“This extremely low level of regret and dissatisfaction and lack of variance in scores impeded the ability to determine meaningful associations among these results, clinical outcomes, and demographic information,” Lane and co-authors wrote in the study.
“Based on our prior experience with this patient population, we expected people to be very satisfied with their decision to get surgery, but we were surprised to find how little these results varied,” Lane said.
Ian Nolan, Brielle Weinstein, and Loren Schechter also noted the “striking” results compared with the regret rates from other types of medical treatments, saying the finding highlights a “double standard.”