In the 2022/23 fiscal year, 2,700 Albertan minors requested hormone therapy and 26 had their breasts removed. Alberta Health Services (AHS) says only eight of the 26 mastectomies were related to gender dysphoria, while the others had to do with pain management and cancer treatment. The institution does not know how many of the requests for hormone treatment were related to gender dysphoria. “It is estimated that treatments for reasons other than gender dysphoria represent the majority of claims,” AHS said, per National Post. Last week, Premier Danielle Smith’s government made moves to prohibit gender reassignment surgeries for minors, as well as ban puberty blockers and hormone therapies for minors aged 15 and under. “There have been some organizations advocating for those treatments to be done younger and younger and I guess I’m not comfortable with that,” Smith said on CTV’s Power Play Sunday.There is already a national restriction on “bottom surgery” for minors with gender dysphoria. Medical director of the transgender-specialized Calgary- and Toronto-based Foria Clinic Dr. Kate Greenaway said “top surgeries” are so uncommon that Smith was exhibiting “showmanship” when she proposed the legislation.“It is a bit of showmanship, right?” Greenaway said per National Post. “To draw attention to the surgery component, which is really not a major consideration when we’re talking about this pediatric community of gender-affirming care patient.”She said especially in Alberta, it’s difficult for anyone to receive a mastectomy “because we just don't have the resources to offer it.”In terms of puberty blockers and hormone treatments being banned for ages 15 and under, Greenaway said it “is a major change that we haven’t seen anywhere in this country, and would be really counter to all of the medical evidence and the international and national guidelines we have on how to treat youth.”“You can’t wait until someone is 16 and then block puberty … the ship has sailed,” Greenaway said.
