Enlarge / MANHATTAN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES – 2023/06/25: Participant seen holding a sign at the march. Thousands of New Yorkers took to the streets of Manhattan to participate on the Reclaim Pride Coalition’s (RPC) fifth annual Queer Liberation March. (credit: Getty | Erik McGregor)

People who underwent gender-affirming chest reconstruction surgeries as adults have virtually no regrets years later and overwhelmingly high levels of satisfaction with their decision to have the procedure, according to a study published Wednesday in JAMA Surgery.

The results were so clear, in fact, that the study authors were unable to perform the complex statistical analyses they had planned due to the striking uniformity in the survey responses.

Overall, this study on adults adds to a limited, but growing body of data suggesting that gender-affirming care is “essential” and potentially life-saving care that comes with significant benefits for people who are transgender and gender diverse. Collectively, this is why major medical organizations—including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, and the Endocrine Society—advocate for protecting access to evidence-based gender-affirming care, which is a broad, sometimes misconstrued, term.