Gender reassignment surgery on the rise in the US, report reveals

More transgender people in the US are opting for bottom surgery, a report from one of the country’s leading medical schools has revealed.

According to statistics compiled by the John Hopkins University School of Medicine, from 2006 to 2011 83.9 percent of patients asked for the surgery, in comparison to 72 percent in 2000-2006, reported The Independent.

Collated through data of National Inpatient Sample (NIS) from 2000 to 2014, the data covers 95% of hospitals in the States.

The study has emphasised the importance of health insurers not discriminating against trans people who want the surgery – top, bottom, or both.

This is due to the fact that out of 4,118 people who underwent genital surgery, 56.3 per cent did not have any health insurance cover.

Furthermore, for trans people who had Medicare or Medicaid insurance policies, 70 chose to have genital surgery in 2014.

(Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

The patients were aged from 26-49, reported the study’s authors, Joseph Canner and Omar Harfouch.

Although the demand for gender reassignment surgery has quadrupled in the UK from 2008-2016, gender reassignment is still a lengthy process under the NHS.

Basic surgeries may be covered by the national health service, but users may wish to embark upon additional surgery in order to alter their appearance.

Yet spite of the rise in people needing access to surgery and a surge in transgender rights activism in the mainstream, it appears that President Donald Trump is still hellbent on making life for trans people as difficult as possible.

As well as scrapping Title IX protections which ensure that trans people’s rights are protected in educational institutions, the US administration was the only country where homosexuality is legal that also voted in favour of the death penalty for gay people at a UN summit.

And of course, don’t get us started on the US military…

• TV
• Dec 16 2023

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