In a jaw-dropping display of institutional confusion, the American Medical Association (AMA) is now attempting to have its cake and eat it too. Earlier this year, the AMA aligned itself with the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), acknowledging that irreversible gender-related surgeries should not be performed on minors. It was a rare moment of medical sanity — one that reflected what should be a basic, uncontroversial standard of care. But almost immediately, the AMA began hedging, scrambling to reframe its position in a way that would not provoke activist backlash.
Rather than standing firmly behind the principle that children cannot consent to life-altering procedures, the organization is now suggesting that its opposition to these surgeries is somehow still consistent with “gender-affirming care.” This kind of rhetorical gymnastics is absurd. If the nation’s largest medical association cannot clearly say that minors should not undergo irreversible, dangerous, medically unnecessary surgeries, what exactly does it stand for?
For those of us who have lived through so-called “gender-affirming” interventions, this issue is one that’s close to the heart. I myself am a detransitioner who has reconnected with my body after undergoing surgery and hormonal injections to attempt to feel and appear male. In the past few years, I have been rebuilding my life, doctor’s appointment by doctor’s appointment, attempting to mitigate the irreversible medical harm that I was once told would fix my mental distress. I have, instead, been left with lifelong consequences and regret.
When I was younger, I didn’t need supposed “affirmation” of my identity. I needed help. But instead of asking questions or digging deeper, the medical professionals I trusted guided me down a path that led directly to hormones and surgery. There was no meaningful pause, no exploration of alternatives, and no acknowledgement of the repercussions I would face for the rest of my life.
Thankfully, in the past few years, change has come in the world of transgender medical interventions. The procedures that were pushed on me when I was a mentally distressed teenager have been effectively banned in about half of the states in the U.S. I would know — I testified on behalf of most of those bills.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court found that these laws barring doctors from experimenting with “sex changes” for children are valid and can be upheld, another defeat to the industry that harmed me. Furthermore, the first detransitioner lawsuit to make it to trial found both the doctor and therapist guilty of malpractice. Detransitioner Fox Varian, who had a double mastectomy at 16 while she identified as trans, was awarded $2 million in damages.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) raised concerns earlier this year, and retracted its support for gender procedures on any patient who is under 19 years old. A statement like this only 10 years ago could have saved me from an unnecessary amputation of my healthy breasts while I identified as transgender. While there has been major progress in addressing the epidemic of teenage gender confusion, we must call upon the governing bodies to come out with a unified message. When major medical organizations issue conflicting signals — one to virtue-signal, and one to double down on the well-known dangers of child mutilation — it creates a dangerous position. We cannot continue with a system where one organization urges caution while another signals approval. Doctors, clinics, and institutions will take their preferred statement and run with it, in order to continue pushing life-altering treatments on minors. Mixed messages do not protect patients. They expose them. And these children’s lives depend on clarity and conviction.
The medical community must decide what it stands for. If the principle is truly “do no harm,” then that principle must be applied consistently, especially when those patients are children. The AMA, ASPS, American Academy of Pediatricians, American Academy of Family Physicians, and even other medical societies who have yet to make revised statements that protect children know better than to say that minors can consent to the purposeful disruption of their endocrine systems and loss of healthy body parts. Children can’t consent, and there’s no way to adequately inform a patient about ongoing medical experiments. These medical communities knew better 10 years ago, too, when the trans social contagion “fad” started to sweep the nation. But they didn’t speak up.
Hospitals, surgeons, therapists, endocrinologists, and other professionals all abandoned their oath to do no harm and needlessly destroyed the health of thousands of minors who identified as transgender. In some states, it’s still happening.
Children are not equipped to navigate decisions as large as this. They rely on adults to set boundaries, to exercise judgment, and to protect them from decisions they cannot fully understand. Make no mistake: These are decisions with permanent consequences.
A few of these consequences that plague me include the total disruption of the endocrine system. The removal of healthy reproductive body parts. The inability to breastfeed. These aren’t reversible choices. They are profound medical interventions that reshape a person’s body and future in ways that cannot be undone. No minor can meaningfully consent to that.
And why is the AMA now walking back its previous statements to protect children?
As a detransitioner, I am living proof of what happens when the ethical standard to protect children is not upheld. I cannot undo what was done to my body. I cannot go back and reclaim the years I spent believing that surgery and hormones were my only way forward. The hope that keeps me going is that we can choose a different path for the next generation. That path starts with honesty. It requires acknowledging uncertainty where it exists, rejecting rushed interventions, and setting clear, enforceable boundaries that prioritize the long-term well-being of children. Anything less is negligence. Even though it’s too late for many of us, children deserve better than what we were handed.
The AMA must take a clear position to protect children and do no harm. It must support clear guardrails that prevent vulnerable kids from going down the path of irrevocable harm. If it won’t, children like me are the ones who will pay the price.
Prisha Mosley is an Independent Women ambassador and detransitioner. Independent Women Features, the storytelling platform of Independent Women, featured Prisha’s story as part of its “Identity Crisis” docu-series, which highlights the irreversible harms of gender ideology. Prisha’s story, including her pregnancy journey, was documented in two parts, which can be found here and here.