By Guy Page

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Medical Association have recommended against gender transition surgeries for youths, becoming the first major medical associations in the U.S. to narrow its guidance on pediatric gender care.

The ASPS, a medical organization formed in 1931 and representing 11,000 surgeons worldwide, included this recommendation in a February 3 Position Statement on Gender Surgery for Children and Adolescents:

“ASPS concludes there is insufficient evidence demonstrating a favorable risk-benefit ratio for the pathway of gender-related endocrine and surgical interventions in children and adolescents. ASPS recommends that surgeons delay gender-related breast/chest, genital, and facial surgery until a patient is at least 19 years old.”

The position statement went to the group’s 11,000 members, recommending that surgeons delay transgender-related chest, genital, and facial surgeries until a patient is at least 19 years old. The ASPS is the first major medical organization in the U.S. to reject transgender activists’ ideological push to mutilate young people without sufficient evidence.

The AMA stance against juvenile gender surgery was reported in the Daily Wire and the New York Times.

For years, criticizing gender reassignment surgeries for minors would unleash a cancel campaign over being “transphobic” and intolerant. The media amplified such attacks. Then the issuance of the Cass Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People led countries to significantly curtail such procedures in Europe.

On the same day, leaders of the U.S. Agency of Health & Human Services praised the ASPS report.

“We commend the American Society of Plastic Surgeons for standing up to the overmedicalization lobby and defending sound science,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said. “By taking this stand, they are helping protect future generations of American children from irreversible harm.”

“Today marks another victory for biological truth in the Trump administration,” said Deputy Health and Human Services Secretary Jim O’Neill. “The American Society of Plastic Surgeons has set the scientific and medical standard for all provider groups to follow.”

“When the medical ethics textbooks of the future are written, they’ll look back on sex-rejecting procedures for minors the way we look back on lobotomies,” said Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Administrator Mehmet Oz, MD. “I applaud the American Society of Plastic Surgeons for placing itself on the right side of history by opposing these dangerous, unscientific experiments.”

However, many academics in the United States continue to push back on the Cass Report and the effort to curtail transitioning procedures for children.

Many parents have complained that psychologists and other experts push parents to begin gender transitioning while children are still minors, often warning that failure to do so could lead to the death of their children by suicide.

That complaint was at the heart of a case this month that led to the first major verdict against doctors for such surgeries. In New York, a jury awarded $2 million to Fox Varian, 22, over the double mastectomy performed on her while she was a minor. Psychologist Kenneth Einhorn and surgeon Simon Chin were held responsible for failing to follow the standards of care of reasonable doctors.

The American Association of Pediatricians continues to affirm comprehensive care for transgender children.