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New Study Shows Surge in Irreversible Transgender Surgeries Performed on Teen Girls

Last month, Townhall reported how Chloe Cole, an 18-year-old de-transitioner, announced that she would sue the medical professionals who performed her double mastectomy procedure when she was still a minor.

“My teenage life has been the culmination of excruciating pain, regret, and, most importantly, injustice,” Cole said when she announced her lawsuit. “It is impossible for me to recoup what I have lost, but I will ensure no child will be harmed at the hands of these liars and mutilators. I am suing these monsters.”

Cole’s announcement specified that the Center for American Liberty would sue Permanente Medical Group, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals over the fact that they “performed, supervised, and/or advised transgender hormone therapy and surgical intervention for Chloe Cole when she was between 13-17 years old.”

Cole, who has since de-transitioned, had opened up on multiple occasions about her experience undergoing “gender-affirming” treatments, including a double mastectomy, when she was a young teen. After undergoing the double mastectomy at age 15, she came to regret her decision a year later. And she continues to suffer complications from the procedure, according to Catholic News Agency.

A new study reviewed by Daily Mail found that the number of “top surgeries” performed on minor girls at a health system in California has risen “13-fold” in the last decade. “Top surgery” is a term used to describe a double mastectomy procedure for biological females who are transitioning to live as men (via Daily Mail): 

Results showed children as young as 12 were offered irreversible operations between 2013 and 2020. The overall incidence of mastectomies among minors rose from 3.7 per 100,000 persons-years to 47.7 per 100,000 in that time.

The researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, studied the “top surgery” procedures performed on girls aged 12 to 17 at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California health care system between Jan. 2013 and July 2020. The health system reportedly houses two dedicated gender clinics: 

The researchers calculated the rate of mastectomies by dividing the number of patients who had the operation by the number of children assigned female at birth who were registered with the health system at the start of each year.

Of the 209 patients who had the surgery between 2013 and 2020, 10 were aged 12 or 13. The median age of referral was 16 years.

The majority had a history of mental illness — around 60 percent had anxiety and/or depression, and 11 percent had history of an eating disorder.

The most common procedure was a double incision, where a horizontal cut is made on each side of the chest to remove breast tissue. Nipples are also removed and resized.

Only two patients reported regret after the surgery, but neither underwent reversal surgery. 

According to the study, out of the 137 patients who followed up more than a year after surgery, seven percent had “at least one” complication. This included bad bruising, infection, and scarring that required steroid injections. All the patients were biological females; 87 percent said they “identified as male,” and 10 percent identified as “non-binary.” The rest identified as “other.”

One hospital in Oakland, California, reportedly provided 70 top surgeries on children aged 13 to 18 in 2019. In 2013, the hospital provided five of these procedures.

Daily Mail pointed out that a study conducted by Vanderbilt University last month found that the number of top surgeries provided to transgender youth “surged five-fold” across the country. Townhall covered how Vanderbilt University Medical Center was recently exposed for providing transgender care for children because it’s profitable.