Sex change operations are on the rise in the United States, according to a study released by the Journal of the American Medical Association. The JAMA Network site published a paper on Wednesday by Joseph K. Canner, et al., that examined trends among Americans who identify as transgender and opt to have gender reassignment surgeries. According to the data, researchers found that the percentage of so-called “gender affirming procedures” that involved genital removal and reconstruction had gone up between 2000 and 2014.
“The incidence of genital surgery increased over time: in 2000–2005, 72.0 percent of patients who underwent gender-affirming procedures had genital surgery; in 2006–2011, 83.9 percent of patients who underwent gender-affirming procedures had genital surgery,” noted the study’s abstract. “Most patients (2,319 of 4,118 [56.3 percent]) undergoing these procedures were not covered by any health insurance plan. The number of patients seeking these procedures who were covered by Medicare or Medicaid increased by threefold in 2014 (to 70) compared with 2012–2013 (from 25).” READ MORE
