Detransitioned teen Chloe Cole: I'm afraid my generation will be led astray
Former transgender kid, Chloe Cole, shares the complications she deals with every day as a result of medical interventions she was subjected to after being diagnosed with gender dysphoria. "I'm not sure whether it'll even go away," she said.
Boston Children's Hospital co-director at its Center for Gender Surgery called for a drastic increase in capacity for what he called "gender-affirming care" (GAC), including surgeries, for kids as GOP states enact bans on the practices.
Oren Ganor is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who specializes in gender-affirming surgeries. He has previously stated in an email that the hospital is "slightly flexible" when it comes to the age of transgender girls seeking genital surgery," according to a local outlet. The policy had not been finalized, he said, "because of the issue around consent for sterilization."
The children's hospital clarified to Fox News Digital that it does not provide genital surgeries on kids. A patient needs to live in their new gender for 12 months before the genital surgeries are considered.
In a March 14 article he co-wrote with a medical school student, Shawheen J. Rezei, in The Journal of the American Medical Association, he said that the capacity for gender surgeries for kids needed to be increased.
Oren Ganor is a plastic surgeon who specializes (Harvard Medical School/screenshot)
"Physicians who provide GAC will face a greater burden due to constraints in certain states… work to criminalize GAC for adolescents," the article stated. "Especially as certain states work to criminalize GAC for adolescents, there will be an increased flux of patients traveling to seek care in states with more open legislation."
It called for more clinics to be opened up with targeted knowledge on the gender-affirming model. They outlined several steps "to improve capacity for this patient population" since "there will be an increased flux of patients traveling to seek care in states with more open legislation."
The authors recommended medical school residency programs expose future physicians to GAC by "increase training efforts" for "gender-affirming surgeries."
"[P]lastic surgery residencies currently do not have a recommended number of gender-affirming surgery cases that plastic surgery trainees see during training," the authors wrote.
Boston Children's Hospital opened up a gender-affirming clinic for kids. (Lane Turner/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
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A number of Republican-led states have passed legislation to ban gender-affirming surgeries for kids which they defended in an amicus brief in June 2021, stating that "gender-affirming care" was "experimental."
"We are filing this brief because… we are concerned about the surge in recent years of children suffering from gender dysphoria and other forms of gender-related psychological distress," said Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall in a statement. "[W]e are concerned because these vulnerable children are suffering greatly and need help."
In contrast, proponents of "gender-affirming care" believe it is life-saving treatment for children with a disproportionately high rate of suicide.
The Boston Children's Hospital director called for an increase in capacity of gender-affirming care. (iStock)
"It is important to recognize that for many gender-diverse young people, the decision to engage in gender-affirming care can be lifesaving and life-changing. Without this care, gender-diverse youth can experience severe distress, anxiety, and depression," the Children's hospital told Fox News Digital. "[A]ny decisions about gender-affirming care should be made after a rigorous evaluation process that involves a psychologist or social worker, a patient's doctor and their parents or guardians."
In August, Boston Children's Hospital posted a video, which was later deleted, where a psychologist explained that ‘a good portion’ of children she sees at the hospital's Gender MultiSpecialty Service (GeMS) clinic know their gender identity ‘from the womb.’"
Boston Children’s Hospital also previously faced a wave of backlash over its Center for Gender Surgery that performs mastectomies on teenagers as young as 15, as well as since-deleted wording on the hospital's website that claimed teens as young as 17 can get vaginoplasties.
A video on Boston Children's Hospital posted said that children can know their gender identity ‘from the woumb.' (iStock)
The hospital’s website stated as recently as Aug. 12 that "to qualify for gender affirmation at Boston Children's Hospital, you must be at least 18 years old for phalloplasty or metoidioplasty and at least 17 years old for vaginoplasty," according to The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
That wording has since been changed to read, "To qualify for gender affirmation at Boston Children's Hospital, you must be at least 18 years old for phalloplasty or metoidioplasty and for vaginoplasty."
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A hospital spokesperson said "for surgical consultation, you must be 17 years of age and between 18 and 35 years of age at the time of surgery. We have since updated this to reflect the protocols for the practice, which we have always adhered to (no surgery under 18 years of age)."
After the controversy, the hospital received numerous threats, including some bomb threats.
Massachusets Attorney General Racheal Rollins, said, "I want to say generally that health care providers who support and offer care to gender-diverse and transgender individuals and their families deserve to do so without fear."
Fox News' Caitlin McFall, Jessica Chasmar and Kristine Parks contributed to this report.