A top doctor at a Philadelphia gender clinic has come under fire for claiming age is just “a number” – in defense of performing gender reassignment surgery on minors.
In a 2020 video, Dr. Nadia Dowshen, co-director of the Clinic for Gender and Sexual Development, suggests that a child’s maturity is “more important” than exact age.
She acknowledged that doctors at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia performed “top surgery” on patients as young as 14, removing or implanting breasts.
dr Dowshen made the comments in September 2020 at a medical panel review by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives hearing evidence about trans caring for minors.
But the clip resurfaced on social media this week as the debate over age limits for gender-affirming care heated up heading into the midterm elections.
When asked if there were age limits for sex reassignment surgery, Dr. Dowshen: “It’s important to remember that age is a number.
“But as adolescent medicine and developmental specialists, we know that where a child stands cognitively and socially is more important than the exact number of their age.”
Critics told the comments were “absurd” and “ignored everything we know about human development”.
dr Dowshen was also asked about the potentially life-changing effects of hormonal drugs given to transgender minors that can lead to infertility.
She said that many youth with gender dysphoria are “not at all interested in having children.”
dr Nadia Dowshen, co-director of the Gender and Sexual Development Clinic, said age is just a number when interviewed about transgender care at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in 2020. The clip has resurfaced online in recent weeks
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (pictured) offers top-notch surgeries to minors – which involve breasts being either implanted or removed
The number of pediatric breast reconstruction surgeries in the US increased five-fold from 2016 to 2019, from 100 to 489 annually, figures show
This map shows the proportion of children between the ages of 13 and 17 who have been identified as transgender by state. The darker colors indicate a higher proportion of youth. In New York and New Mexico it is even three percent
Candice Jackson, a former Trump administration staffer, said: “To say, when it comes to children, ‘age is just a number’ is a way of growing up children and ignoring everything we know about the healthy physical , intellectual and emotional development of humans to justify experiments with vulnerable youth .’
Ms Jackson, who was Assistant Assistant Secretary at the Office of Civil Rights between 2017 and 2018, added: “It is irresponsible at best and destructive at worst to whitewash the harm being done to minors by subjecting them to irreversible, unnecessary, life-changing surgeries.” initiates .’
She said the comments were another example of surgeries being carried out “before her”. [children’s] Mind and body even had a chance to grow.”
How gender dysphoria in children has DOUBLED since 2017 – with 300,000 teenagers now identifying as trans
The number of children with gender dysphoria has exploded in recent years, leading to the use of powerful anti-puberty drugs.
According to recent estimates from 2020, approximately 300,000 children between the ages of 13 and 17 (1.4 percent) identify as transgender in the United States.
That’s double the figure estimated as transgender in a previous report by the same researchers in 2017, although they used different estimates.
In Connecticut and New York, the number of children identifying as transgender in their states has nearly quadrupled in just the past three years. Only in West Virginia, Tennessee and New Jersey did the population decline.
Children ages 13 to 17 are over four times more likely to identify as transgender (1.4 percent) than adults over 65 (0.3 percent).
Some say the rise is due to a heightened awareness of gender dysphoria — emotional distress due to a disconnect between gender identity and biological sex — and growing acceptance in society.
However, many believe that children’s impressionable minds are easily influenced by “trends” and “phases” among their peers, and that children are unwilling to make irreversible decisions about their gender.
Although there are no official national estimates, more and more children are receiving gender-affirming care at younger ages. Treatment often involves powerful and life-altering drugs that block puberty and the release of key developmental hormones.
So far, four states — Alabama, Arkansas, Texas and Arizona — have enacted bans to limit access to gender-affirming treatment, including hormone treatment and surgery. Oklahoma on Tuesday signaled its intention to follow suit after threatening to cut funding at a hospital if it prescribes puberty blockers or hormone therapies.
Patrick Brown, a staffer at the right-wing Conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, told : “You’ve seen a couple of people claim you can be any age you want, age is just a number.
“It’s hard to put into words how ridiculous this is.”
He added: “We have legal standards for how people mature – we treat children differently than adults.
“The idea of a 14- or 15-year-old being given the same legal rights and protections as an adult just goes against a whole range of laws.
“It’s almost absurd to have to deal with such a hollow claim.”
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia treats people up to the age of 21 in its gender clinic.
There is no lower age limit, but Dr. Dowshen said at the General Medical Association that hearing surgeries are mostly performed on patients “over the age of 16”.
She said the youngest patient receiving “top surgery” at the clinic at the time was 14 years old.
But butt surgery, which involves removing and implanting genitals, is only performed after the patient turns 18, she said.
The Philadelphia clinic is one of at least 200 clinics providing transgender care in the United States.
Children with gender dysphoria may be prescribed puberty blockers — which stop a teenager’s natural sexual maturation — and hormone therapy — which involves taking opposite sex hormones to become more masculine or feminine.
Surgery should be the last resort. Nationwide, there is no age limit for when these procedures can be carried out.
But there is an ongoing political argument over whether this should change.
Arizona has already introduced an under-18 age limit for operations, while Alabama, Arkansas and Texas have tried to enact similar rules but have been stopped by the courts.
Last week Florida banned puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery for trans minors.
It comes after a report last week revealed that sex reassignment surgeries performed on minors had increased five-fold in just three years.
At the same time, there is a growing number of “switchers” who regret the change.
Critics argue that many children who do not clinically have gender dysphoria get swept up in the wave of cultural acceptance.
has reached out to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for an explanation.
The hospital has had to step up security in recent weeks after threats from far-right extremists were aimed at its transgender clinic.
The US Department of Justice is urged to investigate threats of violence against this hospital and others providing the treatment.
Candice Jackson, a former Trump administration staffer, said, “Saying, when it comes to children, ‘age is just a number’ is a way of growing up children.” Patrick Brown, a fellow at the right-wing Conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center told that claims that children should be treated the same as adults are “ridiculous”.
Researchers at the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles estimate that more than one in every hundred 13- to 17-year-olds in the United States now identify as transgender.
The rate drops to one in 200 people aged 18 to 24.
In the UK, referrals for girls seeking treatment for gender dysphoria, or the distress that results from a perceived discrepancy between the gender someone identifies with and the gender they were born into, are in the past increased by more than 4,000 percent decade.
It comes after a Harvard University-affiliated children’s hospital sparked outrage last month after claims some babies know they are transgender “from the womb”.
In a now-deleted video, Boston Children’s Hospital suggested an even larger number of minors would know “as soon as they can speak.”
The claim was quickly slammed as lacking scientific basis by critics, who also pointed out that medical professionals were unwilling to interview vulnerable children.
The hospital is also facing claims that it has been pushing under-18s into life-changing sex reassignment surgeries.
In the clip, posted to Boston Hospital’s official YouTube page in August, psychologist Dr. Kerry McGregor, what kind of patients she treats.
She says: “So most of the patients that we have in the clinic actually know their gender, usually at the age of puberty.
“But a good proportion of children already know it – apparently – from the womb.
“And they’re usually going to start expressing their gender identity as very young kids, some as soon as they can talk… Kids know it very, very early.”