They Called it "Care", A Jury Called it Malpractice: The Gender Surgery Reckoning Begins
From 2019 through 2024, the United States witnessed an unprecedented surge in youth gender dysphoria diagnoses and medical interventions. What had once been a rare clinical presentation suddenly became a cultural phenomenon, with diagnoses doubling nationwide between 2019 and 2021 alone. According to national medical data, 42,167 children and teens were diagnosed with gender dysphoria in 2021, up from 21,375 in 2019 a dramatic spike that reshaped pediatric medicine and ignited fierce public debate.
During this same period, medical interventions on minors expanded rapidly. A watchdog database reports that 13,994 minors received gender‑transition treatments between 2019 and 2023, including 5,747 surgeries and 8,579 hormone or puberty‑blocker interventions.
Even narrower insurance claims analyses confirm that hundreds of minors underwent breast removal surgeries during these years.
These numbers are no longer abstract. They now form the backdrop of the first successful de-transitioner malpractice lawsuit in American history, a verdict that marks a major turning point from the narrative that has been pushed on us from the medical community.
No Mainstream News Outlet Covered This Case!
On Friday, a Westchester, New York jury awarded $2 million to Fox Varian, a young woman who had her healthy breasts removed at age 16 under what was presented to her as “gender‑affirming care.” Her psychologist and surgeon were found liable after a three‑week trial attended by independent reporters, and not a single mainstream media organization.
The total absence of mainstream media coverage is striking.
For three weeks, testimony unfolded about the speed, certainty, and lack of safeguards with which a confused teenager was ushered toward irreversible surgery. And for three weeks, the nation’s largest newsrooms looked away.
When the verdict was read, Varian reportedly wept and embraced her mother, a moment of relief after years of physical and emotional fallout.
Independent journalist Benjamin Ryan, who sat through the entire trial, called the case “just the beginning,” noting that he has tracked numerous similar lawsuits preparing to move forward. He added that legal experts believe tort law may ultimately reshape or even dismantle the current model of pediatric gender medicine.
It's about time that someone was held responsible for the irreversible harm inflicted on our children. For years, California’s public schools pushed gender‑identity policies causing young children to question whether they were born in the "right" body, requiring staff to use a child’s chosen pronouns while keeping parents in the dark.
The medical community saw this surge in gender dysphoria as a financial boon. Major hospital systems openly advertised gender services as “growth opportunities” in internal documents that later became public through lawsuits and investigative reporting.
Here is a list of costs associated with " gender affirming care"
Puberty blockers: $4,000–$25,000 per year
Cross-sex hormones: $300–$1,500 per year
Required lab monitoring: $1,000+ per year
Double mastectomy: $9,000-$15,000
Facial feminization: $20,000 - $50,000
Vaginoplasty: $25,000 - $50,000
And this is just the beginning. More money will be made from:
Revisions
Scar tissue treatment
Hormone‑related complications
Fertility treatments
Chronic pain management
And you have a patient for life that needs to have monthly checkups indefinitely with hormones for life, lab work for life and mental health care for life.
Thousands of irreversible procedures were performed on developing children, many of whom are now adults grappling with regret, infertility, chronic pain, or loss of sexual function. The damage done is irreversible. President Trump cut off the federal funding to these medical facilities forcing the closure of Los Angeles Children's Hospital, the largest children's gender surgery center in 2025.
The Varian verdict signals that juries may be willing to hold clinicians accountable for rushing minors into life‑altering decisions.
As more de-transitioners come forward, more lawsuits are filed, and more medical records are scrutinized, the country will be forced to confront what happened between 2019 and 2024, a period future historians may view as a moral stain on the academic and medical community where they coerced vulnerable children into irreversible medicalization.
Healthy body parts were removed. Lifelong medical dependency was created. Teenagers in distress were fast‑tracked into surgeries that even adult patients often approach with caution. History will not look kindly on this moment.
And now, for the first time, a jury has said: This was wrong.
The Varian verdict is not the end of the story; it is the beginning. More cases are coming. More evidence will surface. More young adults will speak out, and the flood gates have opened.
Carol Pefley
Candidate for Ca State Assembly
