Catholic medical group welcomes plastic surgeons’ questions about gender surgeries for teens

(OSV News) -- A group of Catholic medical professionals is hailing recent remarks by U.S. plastic surgeons questioning surgical interventions for teens experiencing gender dysphoria.

The physician-led Catholic Medical Association -- which represents some 2,600 health care professionals -- stated in an Aug. 15 press release that it "applauds the recent statements from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons … regarding the treatment of gender dysphoria in adolescents."

In an Aug. 12 article published by the Manhattan Institute's quarterly City Journal, ASPS was cited extensively with regard to the performance of "chest and genital surgical interventions for the treatment of adolescents with gender dysphoria."

The article's author, Manhattan Institute fellow Leor Sapir, quoted a July acknowledgment he had received from ASPS that "the existing evidence base (for the practice) is viewed as low quality/low certainty," and that there is "considerable uncertainty as to the long-term efficacy" of such procedures.

Sapir noted that "plastic surgeons are increasingly finding themselves in the hot seat of gender medicine lawsuits" filed by those seeking to reverse the interventions, with "at least seven" ASPS members named as defendants in close to two dozen lawsuits.

In 2017, one ASPS member performed a double mastectomy on a plaintiff who at the time was just 13 years old, and had received less than a total of two hours of evaluation from the surgeon and a psychologist -- despite demonstrating a long history of mental and emotional distress, wrote Sapir, citing details from the legal complaint.

The City Journal article, titled "A Consensus No Longer," said ASPS comments marked the "first big fracture" in the apparent U.S. medical consensus over gender interventions for teens, a unity that had been forged particularly by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and the Endocrine Society -- and one that has so far withstood a growing trend among European nations to halt the use of puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries in adolescents with gender dysphoria, due to concerns over problematic evidence.

The Cass Review -- a final report issued in April by Dr. Hilary Cass, a former president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, whom the U.K.'s National Health Service appointed in 2020 to conduct an independent analysis of its gender identity services -- found that evidence supporting gender interventions for children and teens was both insufficient and fraught.

Additionally, the Cass Review noted that WPATH and the Endocrine Society had engaged in a "circularity" of approach by citing each other's statements, rather than, as Sapir wrote, "conducting a scientific appraisal of the evidence."

In its press release, CMA said that current treatment recommendations by WPATH, the Endocrine Society and the American Medical Association "only make the suffering of these patients worse, and are contrary to the treatments now adopted by many countries including England, Scotland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, France, Australia and New Zealand.

"These countries have prioritized psychological care over medical gender affirming interventions," said CMA.

While "gender dysphoria is a psychological diagnosis," said CMA, "gender ideology is a belief system based on a false human anthropology which undermines the intrinsic value and uniqueness of the human person."

Dr. Michelle Stanford, CMA president, said in the press release that "gender ideology is blind to the abundant scientific data already published on the treatment of gender dysphoria."

She added that "physicians promoting it ignore the harms this belief causes to thousands of confused young patients."

CMA said in its release that it "understands that these patients are indeed suffering and deserve the most compassionate and best medical care, as was noted in CMA’s position paper, 'The Ideology of Gender Harms Children,' released last year."

The association said "systematic studies show that compassionate psychological care allows up to 85-90% of these adolescents to resolve their dysphoria without the harmful and irreversible effects of pubertal blockers, cross-sex hormones and mutilating surgery."

CMA's upcoming annual educational conference, which will be held Sept. 5-7 in Orlando, will include speakers "who have been hurt by this ideology and the long term health problems they now suffer as a result," said the organization in its release.

"From our first days in plastic surgery residency training, we were taught that there are no surgical solutions to psychological problems and that remains true today," said CMA board member and plastic surgeon Dr. Al Oliva, who is also a member of ASPS, in the press release.

"CMA stands with ASPS and other medical associations that bravely speak the truth about evidence-based treatment of gender dysphoria in adolescents," said CMA in its release.