Plastic surgeon Dr. Sheila Nazarian says it is a “stain” on her profession that so many doctors remained silent, she argues, while minors were steered toward irreversible gender surgeries. She said data suggests the risks of these procedures on young people could outweigh the potential benefits.
Nazarian responded to a new article in The Atlantic highlighting divisions within the medical community over gender surgeries for minors. The piece notes recent moves by major medical groups to delay certain procedures and questions whether a broad professional consensus still exists in the field.
“It is a stain on my profession that so many were silent on this issue when they knew deep in their hearts and looking at the evidence that this is wrong,” Nazarian said Tuesday on “Fox & Friends.”
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The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) updated its guidance, recommending medical professionals delay these procedures until patients are adults.
The organization now recommends “surgeons delay gender-related breast/chest, genital, and facial surgery until a patient is at least 19 years old.” The group said it found “insufficient evidence” that the procedures have a positive risk-benefit ratio.
Nazarian said the United States is following Europe, where several countries have adopted more restrictive policies on gender surgeries for minors.
The United Kingdom has restricted the sale and supply of puberty blockers for minors. Sweden and France have also tightened guidelines on gender procedures for young people.
Nazarian has been vocal about what she called “emotional blackmail,” accusing doctors of pressuring both the patients and their parents into agreeing to these surgeries.
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In a lawsuit decided earlier this year, a transgender teen won a landmark medical malpractice lawsuit over surgery performed when she was a minor. The parents of the plaintiff, Fox Varian, claimed they were told by medical providers their daughter faced a high risk of suicide if the surgery was not performed.
On Jan. 30, a jury found that a psychologist and a surgeon were liable for malpractice, determining they had skipped key steps in deciding whether surgery was the best course of action.
“Imagine being a mother and being told [to] either accept your transgender child or you’ll have a dead child,” Nazarian said.
“It is a horrific place to place a parent, that you just agreed to take off the healthy body parts of your child because doctors, people you trusted, told you that you would have a dead child if you did not,” she later added.
