Study finds adolescents report high satisfaction after gender-affirming chest surgery
Research on teen patients shows low regret rates, challenging arguments for age restrictions on the procedures.
What to know
- Research on 136 adolescents at Kaiser Permanente found high satisfaction and low regret after gender-affirming chest surgery, with outcomes similar to young adults.
- Online debate centers on study methodology (sample size, 2-year follow-up), whether findings address suicide risk, and how long-term effects should be evaluated.
- Commenters highlight that similar surgeries for cisgender adolescents (gynecomastia reduction, breast augmentation) face less regulatory scrutiny than gender-affirming procedures.
- Disagreement persists over whether high patient satisfaction constitutes sufficient evidence to challenge age-based restrictions, and whether medical standards should be consistent across all patient populations.
The dispute Whether high patient satisfaction in a 2-year follow-up study constitutes sufficient evidence to challenge age-based restrictions, and whether the study adequately addresses long-term psychological and suicide-risk outcomes. · positions read across 187 posts and comments
The study's findings are statistically significant and support allowing adolescents access to gender-affirming surgery under appropriate medical oversight.
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“Obviously 136 participants was enough to show a clearly statistically significant result which reflects a strong effect size.”
madmax766 · Reddit
Age restrictions lack evidence and create a double standard: cisgender youth can access similar surgeries freely, while transgender youth face heightened scrutiny.
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“If a cis AMAB boy starts developing breasts due to some peculiar genetic or environmental quirk we wouldn't hesitate to give him a breast reduction.”
Solesaver · Reddit
The study's 2-year timeframe and satisfaction metric do not adequately address suicide risk, long-term regret, or whether the procedure's psychological effects persist beyond this window.
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“Ok but what about suicides? You can't report a satisfaction rate if you're dead. I can't find anything that would support the claim that suicide rates drop post-op.”
PopaBjorn · Reddit ↗
Adolescents lack the maturity for irreversible surgical decisions and should face age restrictions similar to tattoos and alcohol, regardless of identity.
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“We don't let kids get tattoos or drink, but we want to let them cut off body parts and make irreversible decisions? This is crazy talk.”
RobleyTheron · Reddit ↗
“Adolescents who undergo gender-affirming chest surgery report low levels of regret and high levels of satisfaction, experiencing outcomes similar to those of young adults.”
PsyPost · PsyPost ↗
Kaiser Permanente Northern California researchers Research team
The record 2 articles and posts · last 27 days
What people are saying 24 voices from 2 sites · best of 187 · verbatim
- Aug 30
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No, now you are misrepresenting the numbers, because your wording suggests the other participants had regrets. That is not what the numbers refer to. 77 people responded. Of those, 42 were younger than 18 at the time of the surgery. They asked both age groups about regret and satisfaction and compared them. >The median regret score for both the…
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That is much less impressive than the headline made it out to be.
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The rate of gender affirming surgery for kids in the U.S. under 18 is around 2 per 100,000 There are basically none for 12 and under. Most are closer to 18. So basically nobody gets them. Around 1,400 a year total out of 72 million kids under 18. Out of 195 countries in the world, the U.S. is only one of 8 to 10 countries that allow kids under 18…
- Aug 29
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To summarize, the 42 percent of people that responded to the survey did not regret getting the surgery that they wanted at a median interval of 1.8 years later.
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This doesn't pass the smell test for me. Why was the response rate so low? Google tells me 70 % is normal for clinical studies, this one had 42 %. This, coupled with a perfect 5/5 score for satisfaction makes me believe that maybe only patients who were very happy with the procedure bothered to answer. Any serious researcher would realize this, I…
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https://www. psypost.org/adolescents-report -low-regret-and-high-satisfaction-following-gender-affirming-c/
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Sure, nothing wrong with correcting a physical deformity
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For reference, the average regret rate for surgeries is around 14%. Gender affirming surgeries are typically below 1% for a regret rate. It is *amazing* how low the regret rate is. And another thing, phantom sensations. Cis guys that lost their private parts were likely to experience phantom sensations while trans women rarely did. The human body…
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I do have a theory as to why there was a low participation number, that being said nothing but mostly anecdotal evidence. Recently, there have been several studies targeting trans people run by very biased against the lgbtq. This has led to a lot of people spreading the word to not answer any servey.
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There are decades of research backing up gender-affirming care as extremely successful, providing high quality of life. Among surgeons who work with trans patients they are often quoted for their favorite part of the job— just how happy it makes patients and how positive treatment was overall. Gender-affirming surgeries have higher patient…
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The sample size is going to be small. Very few trans people get access to gender affirming surgeries at all. Those who get access as adolescents are extremely rare. Hard to get a large sample of a small group. The fact that it correlates with every other study about transgender surgery satisfaction and regret rates is more relevant. Transgender…
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For those saying the sample size is small, for a population this small it is still significant. These findings are also obviously repeatable, I have literally never heard of a study showing regret rates for young people seeking gender-affirming care. The reason low sample size is bad is because results are more easily swayed by outliers and…
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A lot of people do have immediate regret following any plastic surgery because it can be hard to recognize yourself. We don’t see this trend typically when it comes to gender affirming surgeries. 99% of people feel satisfied long term with gender affirming surgeries
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Everyone is nitpicking the sample size but fail to see in as a small peice in a growing set of literature. This is a section from the discussion talking about related literature: >The results from this study extend the findings of previous studies showing low decisional regret and high decisional satisfaction following GACS in adults to the…
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Exactly!! and the article says they collected data from patients at a single point in time. So the suggestion is weak, common sense would say you record data points over several years to meaningfully draw conclusions. These are also adolescents who have not finished with frontal-lobe brain development
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Unfortunately this topic was a medical discussion but some people have decided that it should be a political one instead. Most of the world will never even know a person who needs these treatments, yet so many people have opinions about it. Personally I don’t care what people that I will never meet do with their lives. Edit: the article references…
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I don't have an opinion on this one way or another but, speaking as a clinical researcher, this is far from meaningful. there are several major issues which invalidate anything here, I'll give a few. 77 participants completed the survey. how many people were asked? if we're looking at something like 100 people were asked and 77 agreed to complete…
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And much of it is mandated, as well. Any minor needs a series of sign-offs, and that has been the case prior to the draconian restrictions that have been put in place.
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Median time from surgery was 1.8 years. I think that’s an important detail. Edit: I support transgender health care for minors. Some people are interpreting my comment to imply that I don’t. I just think we should be careful with the surgery part. I know these surgeries aren’t done lightly. But I also haven’t seen data convincing me that surgery…
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This is based on a response from 77 people... Also from the article: "Several factors limit the reach of these findings. First, the median time since surgery for participants was about 1.8 years. Because feelings about medical decisions can evolve, this timeframe might not capture long-term regret that could emerge many years later. Another…
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So you're telling me I can't walk into a plastic surgeon's option and immediately have them start cutting things off my body? Silly me. I thought this was America
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It's been known for years that this is one of the lowest regret rate surgeries. Knee replacements have a substantially higher regret rate
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There's a reason these patients get this surgery after speaking with doctors, psychologists, therapists, surgeons, etc. So tired of the knee jerk reactions thinking they just walk in on an impulse Edit: These discussions are for the families and medical professionals, not us.
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DATE: August 29, 2026 at 04:00PM SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG ** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. ** ------------------------------------------------- TITLE: Adolescents report low regret and high satisfaction following gender-affirming…