New research has been performed at the Boston Medical Center which reveals that most trans patients do not elect to undergo gender affirming surgeries.

The study followed 99 transgender patients who were undergoing hormone therapy at BMC, the majority of whom were transgender women.

Data was collected from years prior to 2015, before Massachusetts required all insurers to cover medically necessary care related to gender transition, like gender affirming surgeries.

Only 35 percent of patients chose to undergo any form of gender affirming surgery, with only 15 percent undergoing genital surgery. Transmen were twice as likely to have surgery as transwomen, with more than half of transmen choosing to have chest surgery and far fewer choosing genital surgery. Transwomen were equally or less likely to undergo genital surgery than facial feminization or chest surgery.

Before 2015, there was a much higher financial cost associated with this surgery. While accessibility has increased in the past decade, we still see a shortage of surgeons who perform gender affirming surgeries, and the data we have is limited.

As of now, there are no nationally-representative data sets on the number of transmen and women who elect gender affirming surgery, and clinic-based data sets like BMC's can serve as a benchmark for future research.

--Dr. Joshua Safer, lead researcher