The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is warning about “unknown and unknowable long-term risks” it says are inherent to “gender-affirming care” in minors, adding that the consequences of gender transition surgery are irreversible.
“Gender-affirming” procedures include so-called puberty blockers, sex hormones, and surgery, such as castration, penectomy, and mastectomy, the nonpartisan professional association noted in its Feb. 20 official statement outlining its stance on “gender-affirming care” for children.
The AAPS warns that gender transition procedures are “generally irreversible and have a high probability of causing sterilization.” The procedures also “commit a patient to a lifelong need for medical, surgical, and psychological care.”
Such procedures in minors also are medically and ethically contraindicated due to a lack of informed consent, the AAPS stated.
“Physicians and medical professionals should refuse to be mandated or coerced to participate in procedures to which they have ethical or scientific objections or which they believe would harm a patient.”
Founded in 1943, the organization represents doctors in all specialties nationwide and seeks to preserve the practice of private medicine. Over the years, the group has been a strong proponent of patient autonomy and freedom of discourse in medicine.
Biological Sex Can’t Be Changed: AAPS
The association maintains that while medical, surgical, and other methods can be used to alter the physical appearance of a person’s body, they can’t change a person’s biological sex.
Biological sex is determined at conception by genotype, and with the exception of rare circumstances that could result in ambiguous genitalia, biological sex is “indeed obvious” and is correctly identified at birth, the AAPS states.
Biological sex, or genotype, then determines the role of a person in reproduction.
“Reproduction requires a male gamete (sperm), which can only be produced by a person of XY genotype, and a female gamete (egg), which can only be produced by a person of XX genotype,” the group states. “Primordial germ cells are present at birth.”
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