The American Society of Cosmetic Surgery (ASPS) launched its first report laying out data for “gender verification surgeries,” one that reveals a double-digit boost in transgender surgeries in 2020, even as all other health care services dropped dramatically because of the coronavirus pandemic’s constraints.
“Regardless of the pandemic and its accompanying troubles, the report shows a double-digit boost of 12 percent in [transgender] treatments carried out from 2019 to 2020,” ASPS noted in a report released at the end of July on surgical treatments performed by its member cosmetic surgeons in 2020.
Elective mastectomies for “trans male patients,” i.e., biological females who determine as guys, saw a 15 percent increase from 2019 to 2020, and “trans woman” facial and breast surgical treatments similarly leapt 14 percent.
ASPS member Loren Schechter, M.D., stated it must not be surprising to see double-digit boosts in optional double mastectomies and other transgender surgical treatments during a pandemic.
“I think the pattern line over the last 8 to 10 years has been an increase in the number of people looking for surgery– across a lot of kinds of procedures,” Schechter said, recommending that COVID-19 provided a “confounding” issue, with various constraints on surgical treatments.
“A few of the more complicated surgeries, which required longer inpatient stays, like the male bottom surgical treatments, were down– not necessarily since of interest, but practical concerns connected to COVID-19,” Schechter included.
UCLA cosmetic surgeon and ASPS member, Justine Lee, M.D., verified, “I think the majority of us will settle on this: We’re currently busier than we’ve ever been.”
“I’m booking now for 2023,” she included.
According to ASPS, in general, “trans woman clients surged 13 percent in 2020, while trans male patients increased 11 percent, with nearly 32,000 gender affirmation treatments amount to carried out.”
Twitter user EZ (@ZaneEmma), a mom and healthcare economist concerned about quick start of gender dysphoria in teen ladies, encourages, “Follow the cash.”
She posted the following charts in a Twitter thread:
For the first time, the Society of Plastic Surgeons is also calling out genital and facial surgeries. So, plastic surgeons alone now conduct over 16,000 procedures annually– and that’s just one part of it. It’s not counting basic cosmetic surgeons, OBGYN, urology, and others./ 2 pic.twitter.com/8uQrmQv8IC
— EZ (@ZaneEmma) August 18, 2021
EZ noted especially that, in general, “health services come by 1% in 2019.”
“Non-COVID related services dropped by far more,” she added. “But not mastectomies for gender dysphoria. These ‘life-saving’ treatments for self-loathing girls climbed by 15%, regardless of the pandemic.”
“There is a lot of cash being made on the distress of young people,” EZ continued. “And the pandemic is not stopping anybody. Least of all, the surgeons, who have a lot to get when Medicaid & business insurance providers, convinced by bad data that these procedures are clinically needed, spend for it.”
There is a great deal of money being made on the distress of youths. And the pandemic is not stopping anybody. Least of all, the surgeons, who have a lot to gain when Medicaid & commercial insurance companies, encouraged by bad data that these procedures are medically needed, spend for it./ 4
— EZ (@ZaneEmma) August 18, 2021
In truth, in April, President Joe Biden’s Department of Health and Human Being Solutions Assistant Secretary Rachel Levine, born Richard Levine, criticized efforts in some states to ban youths from acquiring transgender drugs and surgeries, asserting such bans constitute a “health equity issue.”
Transgender Levine informedNPR costs banningyouths from accessing drugs, such as puberty blockers and cross-sex hormonal agents, in addition to transgender surgical treatments, such as elective double mastectomies, are “really challenging to see.”
“I don’t see it as a political problem at all,” Levine said. “I view this as a health equity problem. This is about fairness and equality and about specifically health equity, which is part of my portfolio. So, I do not see any threat in regards to politicization of this issue.”
Citing EZ’s tweet thread, Jeremy Carl, a previous Trump-era deputy assistant secretary of the Department of the Interior and now a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, observed the following irony:
Hey, did you hear that the #Taliban hacked off the breasts of more than 8500 healthy women and women and the penises of more than 4000 healthy men and young boys this year? What beasts!
Oh, wait, never ever mind. https://t.co/3NsiPEMttd
— Jeremy Carl (@jeremycarl4) August 18, 2021
Levine informed NPR that looks by a leading transgender health authorities will help to inform Americans about the significance of transgender Americans accessing the drugs and surgical treatments deemed needed for “health equity.”
“I like to price quote that sage Yoda from Star Wars,” Levine stated. “You know, ‘Worry is the course that results in the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger causes hate. Hate leads to suffering.’ I believe that individuals fear what they don’t understand.”