More than 1,000 women a year have their healthy breasts removed on the NHS in transgender surgery funded by the taxpayer. The Telegraph has the story.
Data obtained by the Telegraph show for the first time the number of referrals for taxpayer-funded ‘masculinising’ mastectomies from specialised gender clinics.
As many as 80% of people using those services are females between the ages of 17 and 25.
The 1,000-plus referrals could be the tip of the iceberg, because many people have transgender surgery privately to bypass long NHS waiting lists.
A search on the GoFundMe platform brings up hundreds of results for “top surgery UK”, also known as chest reconstruction or chest wall surgery.
The NHS faces calls to halt the surgeries. Experts warn there is no evidence that removing healthy breasts is beneficial for those with gender dysphoria – but there is evidence of harm.
A number of detransitioners have spoken publicly about their regret at rushing to have irreversible surgery, and the pain caused.
Zhenya Abbruzzese, co-founder and Senior Adviser at the Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine (SEGM), said: “We are concerned that young people are being told that these procedures will relieve their distress when the research cannot find the benefits, but the harms of losing a functioning body part are certain.
“Doctors need an urgent memo about the actual state of the evidence. But this is a question primarily for health authorities to decide – should the treatment be available given the risk-benefit ratio and the evident risk of harm?“
The data, obtained using freedom of information laws, show that the NHS’s Gender Dysphoria National Referral Support Services (GDNRSS) referred 3,490 women for “masculinising chest surgery” between 2021 and 2023.
The number has risen slightly each year, from 1,089 in 2021 to 1,164 in 2022 and 1,237 in 2023.
Of the 10 NHS hospitals carrying out the operations, North Manchester Hospital had the highest number of referrals. It was followed by Parkside Hospital in London and Castle Hill Hospital in Hull.
GNDRSS deals with all referrals for specialised gender surgery for people over the age of 17.
Over three years, it also sent more than 780 women for “masculinising genital gender reassignment surgery”, also known as “bottom surgery”.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: A transgender NHS doctor who got changed in front of women colleagues has claimed to be a “biological female”. Dr Beth Upton, who is male but identifies as a woman, stated in evidence to an employment tribunal “I’m biologically female” and said that sex had “no defined or agreed meaning in science”.
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