This is purely my own speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is partly to do with the reasons that cis people get the same operations. If a cis teen gets breast cancer (which is rare but does happen), there needs to be a legal and medical process to authorize a mastectomy as soon as possible, since waiting will also the cancer to spread. A cis teen with a genital injury won't be physically harmed by waiting until adulthood to get reconstructive cosmetix surgery. Whatever authorization process that exists for these purposes is probably the baseline that processes for transition surgeries are built on.
this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2023
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This why my immediate thought but for what purposes are breast/genital surgeries allowed?
I was circumcised long before 15 years old.
It's worth noting that the surgeons who do top surgery and the surgeons who do mastectomies or reconstruction for breast cancer often aren't the same people (on top of that, I believe it's common for the person doing the actual "cutting out cancer" part and the person doing the reconstruction to be separate people)--they're fairly distinct medical communities. This may be changing a bit in the US now that there's insurance coverage for top surgery, but they're still pretty different worlds, afaik. (I actually knew someone who had discovered he had breast cancer as he was preparing for top surgery. It did upend the plan somewhat, but he happened to be seeing a surgeon who actually saw cancer patients, so it was less disruptive than it could have been. I suspect the surgeon I saw would have said "yeah, sorry, can't help you".)
Yes basically, it's also less complex. Due to this there's more research data to support it for under 18s than genital surgery.
See the section "Consideration of ages for gender-affirming medical and surgical treatment for adolescents" in WPATH v8 which covers this in depth.
Top surgery, while permanent happens in cis women too and can be changed using implants easily. Plenty of cis females have small breasts. MTF Bottom surgery is a hell of a lot more invasive and complex. It involves the removal of the testicles, the removal the penis, and new structures created using penile tissue and skin graphs. A person would need to be in bed for at least a week to 10 days, getting up only to use the bathroom. They will also need the privacy to dilate every day. Dilation involves inserting a medical dilator into the vagina to keep it from closing. The process can be painful and messy.
If for some reason they are misdiagnosed and want this reversed, undoing that is a complex, multistage procedure, with follow-up procedures.
With that said, 15 seems like it’s a bit young to expect responsible after surgery care. It’s a highly advanced procedure that is probably right to be set for 18.
Sources:
I would assume it has to do with bodily development more than anything, like nerves and shit, but I'm not sure.
I'd say looking more at medical journals and the like will provide more answers than an internet forum.
But keep in mind that just because it's available doesn't mean that people can just go sign up for it. They'd still need their doctors to sign off on it to get insurance to do anything other than wish them good luck.
Money and religious fundamentalist legislation. Same reason Viagra is covered by insurance but tampons can’t be supplied in schools.
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