Transgender and nonbinary teens and young adults — who experience anxiety and depression at higher rates than others — often feel less mental distress after surgery to remove their breasts, according to a study out of Northwestern Medicine published Monday.
It’s a finding that comes as a number of states are attempting to ban gender-confirming surgery for people younger than 18, and as hospitals, including in Chicago, have been criticized, and sometimes threatened, for the care they provide to transgender, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming children.
“Our findings are that top surgery (to remove the breasts) benefits these teenagers and young adults,” said Dr. Sumanas Jordan, lead author of the study, which was published in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Pediatrics. “It is so important to be able to have evidence and treat them not based on politics but based on science and medicine.”
