'Why we hire medical professionals': Pioneering OBGYN shatters right-wing transgender misinformation

18 June 2023

MSNBC Host Ayman Mohyeldin on Saturday interviewed Dr. Marci Bowers, a gynecologic and reconstructive surgeon and president of the World Professional Organization for Transgender Health about the growing attacks by Republicans on gender-affirming care

"Talk to us a little bit about that," host Ayman Mohyeldin began. Citing Bowers' April 2023 New York Timeseditorial, Mohyeldin pointed out that "studies show gender-affirming therapy has huge benefits for patients, and fewer than one percent of those who've received gender-affirming surgery say they regret their decision to do so, which is a much lower rate than has been reported for, say, plastic surgery or cosmetic plastic surgery."

Turning to Bowers, Mohyeldin asked, "Could you talk us through how you work with people questioning their gender identity to help them on their journey and to make sure to the best of your ability that they're making the right decisions for them, especially as children or minors?"

Bowers, a transgender woman and renowned pioneer in her field, explained what the right wing routinely gets wrong.

"Well, it seems a very daunting process to change to, to go from, to change genders. But the fact is, is that the unhappiness or the challenges that, that people face in, in arriving at that decision, that's why we need individualized approaches to each and every patient. Not every adolescent is going to competently be able to make those questions, and this is why we hire medical professionals and we convene parents, doctors, and the individual themselves to make those decisions," Bowers said.

"So it is — any, any approach if it's a, for an adolescent who is presenting — first of all, a comprehensive evaluation is done and before any decisions about medical treatment are done. So that's first and foremost," Bowers continued. "The second point I wanna make is that there is misinformation presented that somehow that we're doing surgery on minors or even children. And that simply is not true. There can be rare, rare instances where surgery on an adolescent makes sense. Say for example, someone who is binding their breasts and presenting as a male, that, that the presence of that breast issue could be a life-threatening issue for that individual. So once again, a surgery in that case could actually be lifesaving."

Watch below or at this link.

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