A Swedish university hospital in Stockholm has unapologetically admitted to performing breast removal surgeries on girls as young as 14 who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
The Karolinska University Hospital contains the largest centre for the treatment of gender dysphoria in Sweden and despite doctors elsewhere not performing medical procedures on children under 16, a report has claimed that doctors at the hospital have removed the breasts of at least one 14-year-old girl, SVT reports.
Per-Anders Rydelius, a senior physician at Karolinska, said that if the child feels her breasts “torment” her, then he called it “quite reasonable” that if the doctors, parents, and the child agree, to remove the breasts surgically.
When asked if he thought that a 14-year-old could understand the long term consequences of such surgery, Rydelius said in young cases doctors are “particularly careful” but called it “unethical” to not help and facilitate suffering in the patient.
He added that the actions could also be considered unethical if the subject no longer has feelings of dysphoria later in life.
“Since in these cases there has been a consensus between the child, the parents, and the medical professional, it is a shared responsibility,” he said.
Between 2013 and 2019, 134 young girls and women between the ages of 14 and 20 have had their breasts removed at the hospital, but the staff refuse to confirm how many others were 14 at the time of surgery.
Parts of Sweden, such as Umeå, have reported a significant rise in the number of children claiming to have gender dysphoria in recent years.
Medical professional Camilla Ernstsson said last year that the specialised centre in Umeå had gone from seeing around one child per year in 2013 to 16 patients in 2018.
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