Of Course We Are

It is only natural that Gender Confirming Surgeries (GCS) are on the rise. For many trans people they couldn’t afford surgeries without insurance paying for it.

More Transgender Patients Opting for Surgery
Demand for qualified surgeons may increase
MedPage Today
By Jeff Minerd
February 28, 2018

An increasing number of patients in the United States are being diagnosed with transsexualism or gender identity disorder and are seeking surgery to address these issues, researchers reported.

From 2000 to 2014, diagnoses of transsexualism or gender identity disorder increased more than threefold, from 3.87 to 14.22 per 100,000 patients, said Joseph Canner, MHS, of the Johns Hopkins Surgery Center for Outcomes Research in Baltimore, and colleagues.

During roughly the same time period, the incidence of genital surgery increased from 72% of all gender-related procedures in 2000-2005 to approximately 84% in 2006-2011, Canner's group reported online in JAMA Surgery.
[…]
The results "support the hypothesis that after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services began covering transition-related services for patients covered by Medicare in 2014, more transgender individuals enrolled in these health programs," Canner and colleagues wrote. "This expansion of coverage may represent an important first step in enabling transgender patients to access previously unaffordable, yet necessary, gender-affirming care. As coverage for these procedures increases, likely so will demand for qualified surgeons to perform [the procedures]."

I think we knew that once insurance covered the surgery that demand was going to rise and as result there would be more doctors who would do the surgery. But do we want 90 day wonders?

I personally would be very careful of going to a doctor who is just starting out, I don’t want to be a guinea pig. So if you are looking to have GCS do your homework!

The Daily Mail reports that…

The Johns Hopkins study examined only data from surgeries Medicare and Medicaid, which may or may not cover gender-affirming surgeries, depending on state laws.

There were 4,118 gender-affirming surgeries performed between 2000 and 2014, the research found.

Between 2000 and 2011, about half of these operations were not covered by insurance.

But by 2014, only 39 percent of gender-affirming operations were not covered by insurance, according to the study, suggesting that Medicare’s 2014 decision to cover the operations may have had a significant effect.

The majority of states do not cover GCS and also those who are covered by ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) insured employers are not required to cover our surgery. For now Medicare does cover our surgery but that may change under the Trump administration.

The articles use “Gender-affirming surgery” or GAS but I don’t know about you but I don’t want gas.