Boston Children's Hospital co-director of gender surgery center calls for more 'gender-affirming care' clinics, predicts 'increased flux' of minor patients

In a recent article, Boston Children's Hospital's co-director at its Center for Gender Surgery, Oren Ganor, called for more "gender-affirming care" clinics, predicting an "increased flux" of minor patients, Fox News Digital reported.

Ganor, a pediatric plastic surgery specialist, co-wrote an article with medical school student Shawheen J. Rezaei in March titled "Streamlining Interstate Access to Gender-Affirming Surgeries."

The article, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, argues that the capacity to provide gender-affirming care to minors needs to be increased.

Ganor, who is also an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, specializes in gender-affirming surgeries and aspires to "educate the next generation of healthcare providers in gender care."

Ganor's article states, "Physicians who provide GAC will face a greater burden due to constraints in certain states."

"Especially as certain states work to criminalize GAC for adolescents, there will be an increased flux of patients traveling to seek care in states with more open legislation," the article continues.

Ganor called for more clinics to specialize in providing gender-affirming surgeries by increasing training efforts "to improve capacity for this patient population."

"[P]lastic surgery residencies currently do not have a recommended number of gender-affirming surgery cases that plastic surgery trainees see during training," the article added.

Ganor has previously stated that the Boston Children's Hospital is "slightly flexible" regarding the age a transgender-identifying child must be to have genital surgery. However, he noted that the hospital's policy had not been finalized due to "the issue around consent for sterilization."

Boston Children's Hospital told Fox News Digital that it does not perform genital surgeries on minors and that a patient must identify as the opposite sex for one year before surgeries will be considered.

According to an August archived version of the hospital's website, "To qualify for gender affirmation at Boston Children's Hospital, you must be at least 18 years old for phalloplasty or metoidioplasty and at least 17 years old for vaginoplasty."

The website has since been updated to state that patients must be at least 18 years old to qualify for genital surgery.

A Boston Children's Hospital spokesperson stated, "For surgical consultation, you must be 17 years of age and between 18 and 35 years of age at the time of surgery. We have since updated this to reflect the protocols for the practice, which we have always adhered to (no surgery under 18 years of age)."

"It is important to recognize that for many gender-diverse young people, the decision to engage in gender-affirming care can be lifesaving and life-changing. Without this care, gender-diverse youth can experience severe distress, anxiety, and depression," a spokesperson for the hospital stated. "[A]ny decisions about gender-affirming care should be made after a rigorous evaluation process that involves a psychologist or social worker, a patient's doctor and their parents or guardians."

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