U.S. gender confirmation
surgery up 19 percent in 2016, doctors say
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[May 22, 2017] By
Daniel Trotta
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gender confirmation
surgeries rose 19 percent in 2016 from the previous year, a survey of
plastic surgeons said, an increase some doctors attribute to expanded
Medicare coverage and greater social acceptance of transgender people.
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But less than 0.5 percent of those procedures involved the genitals,
according to the survey of 703 doctors released on Monday by the
American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
Gender confirmation surgery encompasses a number of procedures
including operations on the chest or face and is a more inclusive
term than gender reassignment surgery, which can include reshaping
the genitalia.
"It's a diverse population and there's not a one-size-fits-all
approach for caring for a transgender person. Not everybody wants
every surgical option," said Loren Schechter, a Chicago-based
surgeon and member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
He attributed the increase to a 2014 decision by Medicare to end a
blanket denial of coverage on gender transition related surgery and
to changing societal attitudes toward transgender people and more
positive images of them in the media.
The society publishes an annual statistics report on all types of
plastic surgery and began reporting gender confirmation surgery for
the first time this year.
They reported 3,256 surgeries, of which 54 percent were performed on
male-to-female patients, or transgender women, and the remainder on
female-to-male patients, or transgender men.
Among transgender women, 92 percent of the procedures were breast or
chest operations, and 7 percent were facial.
Only 15 operations, or 0.9 percent, were on the genitals.
Among transgender men, there were zero genital operations reported.
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Of all procedures on transgender men, 95 percent involved the breast
or chest and 5 percent on the face.
Most transgender people forgo gender reassignment surgery, with only
11 percent of transgender women having had their testicles removed
and 12 percent undergoing vaginoplasty, according to a landmark U.S.
survey of nearly 28,000 transgender adults released last year by the
National Center for Transgender Equality.
However, roughly half of transgender women said they would like to
have such surgeries, that survey said, finding many lack the money
or health insurance to cover costs.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons said it represents 94
percent of all U.S. board-certified plastic surgeons. It could not
assign a margin of error to the gender confirmation survey but said
it applied the same methodology as it always has for its annual
statistics report.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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