Major Medical Organizations Retreat on Irreversible Gender Surgeries for Minors
The American Medical Association and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons move to defer irreversible gender surgeries in minors days after $2 million malpractice verdict for teen detransitioner.
Two of the most influential medical organizations in the United States have just shifted course on pediatric gender surgeries — and the timing is notable.
This week, the American Medical Association (AMA) endorsed delaying gender-affirming surgeries until adulthood, just one day after the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) recommended postponing breast/chest, genital, and facial surgeries until at least age 19. While framed as recommendations rather than binding clinical guidelines, the signal is unmistakable: irreversible surgical alteration of minors is facing growing resistance.
In 2023, the AMA strengthened its support for gender-affirming care. Now, it is drawing a firmer boundary around permanent surgical interventions — procedures that remove healthy tissue, permanently alter anatomy, and carry lifelong consequences.
It’s no secret that gender-altering surgeries are dangerous: Long-term data show that sex-reassigned individuals face triple the overall mortality and a 19-fold higher suicide risk:
The policy reversals come just days after a landmark malpractice verdict in Westchester County, New York. A jury awarded Fox Varian $2 million after finding that clinicians failed to provide adequate disclosure of the risks, alternatives, and long-term consequences of top surgery performed when she was 16. Testimony revealed minimal pre-surgical evaluation, unresolved underlying mental health conditions, and allegations that consent was obtained under intense psychological pressure. Varian later detransitioned, telling the jury she is “disfigured for life.” While no financial award can restore what was surgically removed, the verdict establishes a powerful legal precedent: physicians can be held accountable when irreversible procedures on minors fail to meet standards of informed consent and clinical care. As her attorney warned, knowing that a jury is willing to impose liability is something “every doctor should take seriously.”
It is also important to note that opposition to pediatric medical transition did not begin this week. In addition to the McCullough Foundation, over a dozen medical, research, and advocacy organizations have expressed serious concerns from the outset — citing insufficient long-term data, evolving neurodevelopment in adolescents, and the ethics of irreversible intervention:
For years, these organizations argued that permanent medical and surgical transition in minors lacked robust long-term safety data and raised serious ethical concerns. At the time, those warnings were often marginalized. Today, major institutional bodies are beginning — at least with respect to surgery — to acknowledge the gravity of irreversible physical alteration of adolescents.
Expect a tidal wave of lawsuits as this issue breaks wide open.
Epidemiologist and Foundation Administrator, McCullough Foundation
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Thank God! Finally some common sense is being implemented. I've long said that when the money starts disappearing from the performance of these horrendous experimental (genital in particular) surgeries, the medical-pharmaceutical industrial complex will begin backing off. After all, they're only in it for the money. I'm sure all these doctors are smart enough to know that you can "carve" a man into a woman (and vice versa). The money was the only reason they pushed this!
Excellent news! Hopefully many more perpetrators of this evil will go down!