Critics are calling out the American Medical Association (AMA) for its "activist position" after it recently floated the idea of taxpayers footing the hefty bill for biological men seeking a uterus transplant.
The AMA's Journal of Ethics made arguments for uterus transplants for transgender patients in June, including whether taxpayers should bear the cost, which could be anywhere from $100,000 to $300,000 for each procedure.
Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marty Makary, one of the move's staunchest critics, questioned why the association is not pouring its resources into research focused on complications surrounding gender-affirming treatment instead during "Fox & Friends."
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"It is odd that the AMA is choosing to really focus on this activist position rather than fund the important research we need in transgender medicine," Makary told Ainsley Earhardt Wednesday. "What's the regret rate after transition surgery? What's the long term complication rate of hormones?"
"Those studies are not being done. Instead of funding those studies, they've chosen to take an activist position," Makary said. "And it's very hard to do research in this field, Ainsley, because the activists have run a lot of people out of town, that reasonable doctors and objective scientists have been run out of town. Even recently, Mayo and Jefferson have fired people over simply suggesting that we need better research."
The journal notes that some patients are seeking the procedure to have children, while others are contemplating the surgery to enhance their own femininity and "consolidate their identities."
Either way, Makary said the procedure opens the door to the possibility of patients, who were born male, to gestate children.
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"Medically, it's possible," he said. "The question is, should it be done? It is odd that the AMA is choosing to really focus on this activist position rather than fund the important research we need in transgender medicine. What's the regret rate after transition surgery? What's the long term complication rate of hormones?"
Makary previously noted it is "odd" the AMA is choosing to research uterine transplants for transgender patients because it has bypassed key issues plaguing the field of medicine today – some of which include over-treatment, cancer research and rising health care costs.
"Now there is a movement within the American Medical Association to say, 'Let's do this in biologic men or biologic men who identify as women,'" Makary said. "If you remember, for decades, doctors have identified transgender people with chromosomal tests and clear-cut biologic features, but now there's a movement where some doctors and the American Medical Association is saying people should be able to pick their gender change freely as a matter of personal choice."
"That's why you can walk into a Planned Parenthood as a child and walk out with a bottle of hormones. They believe it's the job of the medical profession to simply affirm what you want to do."
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