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I’m looking for examples for something I’m writing. Trans people are diagnosed as trans based on not much more than their say-so. There are no lab tests, MRIs, CT or X-rays to diagnose it. I don’t think there’s any other medical field in which they cut off your testicles, uterus or any other organ because of the patient’s decision alone.

You can rule out cosmetic surgeries as an example, because trans surgeries aren’t just cosmetics - a double mastectomy isn’t just a breast reduction, for example.

My understanding is that psychiatric surgeries have gone mostly out of style, and while might be performed in some countries still, they’re a very rare edge case.

Thanks.
I’m looking for examples for something I’m writing. Trans people are diagnosed as trans based on not much more than their say-so. There are no lab tests, MRIs, CT or X-rays to diagnose it. I don’t think there’s any other medical field in which they cut off your testicles, uterus or any other organ because of the patient’s decision alone. You can rule out cosmetic surgeries as an example, because trans surgeries aren’t just cosmetics - a double mastectomy isn’t just a breast reduction, for example. My understanding is that psychiatric surgeries have gone mostly out of style, and while might be performed in some countries still, they’re a very rare edge case. Thanks.

41 comments

[–] Philogynist 🦋🌍🍃 25 points Edited

Just to clarify, you're talking about physical medical alterations being allowed to be done to "treat" a psychological diagnosis (or self-diagnosis?)?

The closest I can think of is mood disorders being treated by given mood stabilizers or other pills, and that's not even in the same ballpark. There are body integrity identity disorder (BIID) patients who seek out amputations, but I don't know if this is necessarily done as treatment.

[Edit: Lmao great: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19132621/#:~:text=The%20term%20body%20integrity%20identity,transection%20of%20their%20spinal%20cord.

The term body integrity identity disorder (BIID) describes the extremely rare phenomenon of persons who desire the amputation of one or more healthy limbs or who desire a paralysis. Some of these persons mutilate themselves; others ask surgeons for an amputation or for the transection of their spinal cord. Psychologists and physicians explain this phenomenon in quite different ways; but a successful psychotherapeutic or pharmaceutical therapy is not known. Lobbies of persons suffering from BIID explain the desire for amputation in analogy to the desire of transsexuals for surgical sex reassignment. Medical ethicists discuss the controversy about elective amputations of healthy limbs: on the one hand the principle of autonomy is used to deduce the right for body modifications; on the other hand the autonomy of BIID patients is doubted. Neurological results suggest that BIID is a brain disorder producing a disruption of the body image, for which parallels for stroke patients are known. If BIID were a neuropsychological disturbance, which includes missing insight into the illness and a specific lack of autonomy, then amputations would be contraindicated and must be evaluated as bodily injuries of mentally disordered patients. Instead of only curing the symptom, a causal therapy should be developed to integrate the alien limb into the body image.

So why in the fresh hell are we allowing people who desire the removal or changing of healthy sexual characteristics go undoubted and to mutilate themselves? Where is the same ethical controversy? Do trans people really have autonomy? Do they really not have a neuropsychological disturbance?
[–] Sylvanas [OP] 12 points

Yeah that’s a good equivalence. The fact is that this sort of controversy around BIID surgeries exists, but you won’t see as much resistance to cutting off healthy breasts/uterus for young girls who say “actually I’m a boy”.
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