LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: In a now-deleted video, a surgeon going by the name "Dr Frankenstein" spoke openly about the drawbacks of performing genital reshaping procedures on transgender children and adults.
In the video, Dr Blair Peters, a self-described "queer surgeon" with pink hair, who uses "he/they" pronouns, and has a "passion" for genital procedures, claims that patients must deal with lifetime post-operative difficulties related to fertility, sexual satisfaction, and other issues.
Who is Dr Blair Peters?
Dr Peters is an assistant professor of surgery in the division of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Oregon Health and Science University. Dr Peters, who uses the pronouns he/they, pushes for gender-affirming care in the medical field. He was one of the first two fellows in gender-affirming surgery at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and supports the medical community's greater attention on LGBTQ and transgender treatment, as stated in Professor Watchlist.
The way Dr Peters, who works at one of America's most cutting-edge institutions, describes his procedures—some of which include robotics—as experimental may be more worrisome. According to him, he is "figuring out what works" and his team will have more information in the upcoming "five to 10 years."
It is well known that removing patients' privates completely or surgically changing male and female genitalia to resemble those of the other sex are difficult and challenging surgeries. Advocates for gender-affirming treatment claim that while they are uncommon, they are crucial for certain trans persons. Critics claim they need to be outlawed, especially for children, and that sufferers should seek counseling rather than cutting themselves.
Dr Brianna Durand of Empower Physiotherapy in Seattle had a 37-minute interview with Dr Peters, an esteemed plastic surgeon at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), during which he made the confessions.
It appears that the initial video post from last year was removed, but it was then found in an archive and recently reposted on social media. The operations were described by viewers as "evil" and as being similar to Nazi-era experimentation. The conservative academic Christopher Rufo compared Dr Peters to another doctor, the fictitious researcher who creates a monster out of body parts in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel, Frankenstein.
Dr Peters discusses developments in phalloplasties and vaginoplasties
In the video, Dr Peters discusses developments in phalloplasties and vaginoplasties, such as the use of a robot operated by a second surgeon to create a 'neo-vagina' from tissue taken from the penis and scrotum. He also discusses "nullification," a growingly common treatment that involves the total removal of genitalia from non-binary individuals. He controversially refers to the 'handful of puberty-suppressed teenagers' having genital surgery at OHSU, ie, young people who have used drugs to postpone puberty.
He said that with those boy-to-girl transitioners, doctors "don't have enough tissue" to make the neo-vagina and must transplant skin from another area. Dr Peters stated, "We're kind of learning and figuring out what works." After surgery, patients commonly experience issues, the doctor said. He claimed they might have "rectal injury and urinary incompetence." Some people find it difficult to get "sexual satisfaction" from changed bodily parts, and their odds of "future childbearing" are worse.
Some of them require "really demanding post-operative care," he continued. The neo-vagina canal of nearly every patient who has had male-to-female genital surgery shortens with time, he claimed. Dr Peters said, "We've seen patients coming back even 20-plus years out from a vaginoplasty that has something happened in their life, that they just don't dilate, and aren't having sex for a year, and they will lose a lot of a lot of depth," as reported by DailyMail.
'We're going to learn a lot more in the next 10 years'
As more Americans, both young and old, choose to have genital surgery, Dr Peters claimed his methods and success rates were increasing. However, he said that there was still much to learn in this developing field of medicine. He said, "We're going to learn a lot more about it in the next five to 10 years as we're doing just increasing numbers of these cases."
Dr Peters and other proponents of trans medicine frame the procedures as a trade-off, admitting their significant disadvantages but arguing that they are essential for those who have severe body dissatisfaction.
