Letter to Members of Parliament: ‘WE DO NOT CUT OFF YOUNG WOMEN’S BREASTS BASED ON FEELINGS!’

Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of Parliament,

We are sending you the op-ed titled “We do not cut off young women’s breasts based on feelings,” published in the journal Marianne (and among the top five most-read op-eds upon release), which has since become a petition that has gathered 6,600 signatures to date. Our warning concerns adolescent and very young women who wish to change sex (a discomfort referred to as “gender dysphoria”), but who are, in reality, struggling with what we have termed pubertal sexuation anxiety (ASP)—a deep unease with their changing bodies.

Our call is to ban the surgical removal of breasts (referred to as double mastectomy) in cases of “gender dysphoria” when the goal is to improve the well-being of minors—or even of very young adults.

A French collective of “lesbians, gays, and bisexuals for sex-based rights”—LGB Alliance France—which has contacted and met with several parliamentarians, is also raising the alarm over what it now sees as a new form of conversion therapy, carried out in the name of supposed sex change, particularly among minors.

What does this mean?

Young girls, some of them lesbians, feeling masculine, may seek to change sex to conform to gender stereotypes (and thus call themselves heterosexual). Likewise, effeminate boys believe themselves to be girls—this is what we, as doctors and psychologists, are witnessing in clinical settings.

Currently, a dangerous conflation is being made between sexual orientation and gender identity, aiming to criminalize parents and professionals who do not adopt a strictly “trans-affirmative” stance toward a young person expressing a feeling of dissonance with their birth sex—accusing them of practicing conversion therapy.

This conflation has been highly effective, particularly in France, where the law banning conversion therapy for homosexuals has included gender identity under its scope. It is now vital to clearly affirm that what should be called “conversion therapy” is any attempt to make an adolescent believe they can change sex—and any hormonal or surgical intervention on a minor aiming to irreversibly alter their bodily characteristics.

A final note about countries returning to a more cautious approach for minors: on May 16th, in Chile, left-wing MP Pamela Jiles Moreno (Humanist Party) released a public statement after a widely supported vote against the medicalization of minors who feel they are of the opposite sex.

Thank you for your attention,

Céline Masson and Caroline Eliacheff, Directors of the OPS

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