A study by Komodo Health, a health information technology company, revealed that cases of gender dysphoria in children increased by 122% from 2017 to 2021. The report, conducted in collaboration with Reuters, defines the disorder as "the distress caused by identifying with a gender different from that assigned at birth."
Komodo Health, which monitors insurers' claims to health care providers such as Medicaid, reported that as of October of last year, there were 42,167 diagnoses of gender dysphoria among children aged 6 to 17. The figure also represents an increase of 17,320 cases since 2020.
Overall, the analysis found that at least 121,882 children aged 6 to 17 years were diagnosed with gender dysphoria from 2017 to 2021. States that experienced sharp increases included New York, where they quadrupled in five years, and California, where they nearly tripled.
Gender reassignment
The number of sex reassignment surgeries also skyrocketed last year. Komodo Health found these procedures have increased 13-fold in the last decade. From 2019 to 2021, there were 56 surgeries performed on patients aged 13-17 years with a prior diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
Breast removal, in some cases called "the top surgery," is the most commonly demanded surgery among adolescents, with a total of 776 mastectomies performed in 2021. This figure does not include procedures paid out of pocket.
Puberty blockers
Insurance claims for puberty blocker prescriptions increased by 120% last year (1,390) compared to 2017 (633). The study said these drugs "inhibit development of a deeper voice and an Adam’s apple and growth of facial and body hair" in boys by suppressing the release of testosterone.
In the past five years, approximately 4,780 adolescents started taking puberty blockers with a prior diagnosis of gender dysphoria. Patrick Brown, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, told the Daily Mail that the data is consistent with the perception of many specialists that there is an increase in the number of children receiving this treatment.
The study claimed that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved puberty blockers as a treatment for gender dysphoria. Their "off-label use in gender-affirming care, although legal, lacks the support of clinical trials to establish their safety for such treatment."
Although there is no national database for transgender health claims in the United States, in recent months, the debate over whether there should be restrictions on the treatment given to children suffering from gender disorders has intensified. This is due in part to the fact that an increasing number of former patients regret having undergone the irreversible procedure because they were not mature enough as children.
