I'm disappointed that there is a "mega-thread" for this. No one's going to come here and read this place. I wrote a fairly long post, and apparently nobody will care. Great.
I'll just post it over here then. -_-
I believe "hormone replacement therapy" and "sex change operations" are just a means by the medical industry to exploit people for monetary gain rather than a real solution to a real problem; just like the fearmongering used to make parents have their male children circumsized for no actual benefit
I'm not saying trans people are wrong for trying to seek out help. I'm saying the "help" that is offered is actually a lie, just to grab money off it, exploiting people's insecurities.
Hormone replacement therapy? Sex surgery? There is so much effort from the (American) medical industry to support messing with the human body, in ways that are not understood - long-term health side-effects, potential problems - giving people some extra estrogen/testosterone and hope they're happy with the pills they get.
Executing a complex, highly intrusive plastic surgery that will permanently destroy one's existing genitalia!
What's the cost of this procedure, you ask?
For patients not covered by health insurance, the typical cost of a sex reassignment surgery can range from about $15,000 for just reconstruction of the genitals, to about $25,000 for operations on the genitals and chest to $50,000 or more for procedures that include operations to make facial features more masculine or feminine.
$15000 to $50000! Clearly a great business to be had! And it's still plastic surgery: just like "augmenting" one's breasts with silicone.
The worst thing though is that now, parents sometimes think their "transgender teenagers" need "hormone replacement" at ages 13-14, who knows what effects that will have? Is that really the solution? Can you even understand the risks of such a "solution"? Do the "medical professionals" actually understand the risks of this "solution" - or just do it out of habit?
And for the second half of the title, it's a well-known(?) fact that in the USA, male children are circumcised rather often - unlike ANY other 1st world country.
Morris and his colleagues found the circumcision rate in newborns has declined from 83 percent in the 1960s to 77 percent in 2010. (The overall rate among U.S. males age 14 to 59 is 81 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)
Europe doesn't support this practice of genital mutilation by default, and people are just fine without it. So what's the benefit? In the USA, where all medical operations cost far more than any other 1st world country...
“Similarly, the mean payment for an MRI in the United States was $1,145 compared with $350 in Australia and $461 in the Netherlands.”
...as the USA health-care is for profit - it's in their benefit to make people want additional "services" they provide.
For patients not covered by health insurance, circumcision for an older child or adult male typically costs $800-$3,000 or more. For example, Gentle Circumcision charges $850 for children 1 to 17 years, $1,500 for adults if local anesthesia is used and $3,000 for adults if general anesthesia is used.
If they work for profit, why would they tell you not to buy a service they can charge $850 for?
So I think sex change operations and hormone replacement therapy are just means to exploit already-distressed people into buying a fake solution. It's not a solution. You don't "change genders". You pay the medical companies to let them screw you over forever, and they'll be the ones laughing because now they have your money - ethics out the window.
That's my opinion.