OPINION:
Last week, a jury awarded Fox Varian $2 million in damages after she sued her psychologist and doctor, both of whom oversaw her transition to male, complete with a gender-mutilating mastectomy when she was only 16.
Ms. Varian’s case was the first successful medical malpractice lawsuit to go before a jury and could be a significant step in ending so-called gender-affirming care within the U.S. medical establishment.
Three years after undergoing surgery to get her breasts removed, Ms. Varian stopped identifying as a man and began the process of detransitioning. Ms. Varian, now 22, accused her doctors of deviating from standard care and her own lack of consent. She said she was told by medical professionals that her permanent transition into a male would alleviate her psychological duress, which it did not.
As the Free Press reports, Ms. Varian “had a turbulent childhood. Her parents split when she was 7, triggering a three-year custody battle that ultimately saw her estranged from her father. She suffered from a constellation of mental health problems, including depression, anxiety and social phobia. She was diagnosed with autism and bounced around various schools. Her first period sent her into a meltdown, and she battled disordered eating and body-image issues. By mid-adolescence, she was completely lost.”
During this period, Ms. Varian started questioning her gender — whether she was in the “right body.” Instead of focusing on her other psychological conditions, such as depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism or body dysmorphia before her surgery, her doctors advised a double mastectomy. Ms. Varian’s attorneys told the jury that her psychologist “drove the train, “putting the idea in [Ms.] Fox’s head” that she needed the surgery.
Ms. Varian’s mother, Claire Deacon, testified that she was against the mastectomy for her daughter but consented to it out of fear that Ms. Varian would commit suicide.
“[The psychologist] was just so emphatic, and pushing and pushing, that I felt like there was no good decision,” Ms. Deacon told The Epoch Times. “I think it was a scare tactic. I don’t believe it was malice, I think he believed what he was saying — but he was very, very wrong,” she said.
The jury was advised not to consider whether the surgery was safe, nor to judge transgender children, but whether Ms. Varian’s physicians deviated from the accepted “standard of care” in evaluating and treating a minor.
Yet there is no widely accepted “standard of care” for gender-affirming surgery for minors. Last year, the Department of Health and Human Services released a comprehensive review of the evidence and best practices for promoting the health of children and adolescents with gender dysphoria. It revealed “serious concerns about medical interventions, such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, that attempt to transition children and adolescents away from their sex.” It pointed to serious risks, such as infertility, while finding very weak evidence of benefit.
“Our duty is to protect our nation’s children — not expose them to unproven and irreversible medical interventions,” said National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya. “We must follow the gold standard of science, not activist agendas.”
Twenty-six states have enacted bans or restrictions on gender-affirming medical care for minors. Last year, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at ending gender-affirming care for people younger than 19 by restricting federal research and education funds to institutions that provided it and by excluding its coverage from federal programs such as Medicaid and Medicare.
In December, the House of Representatives passed the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, which would criminalize gender-affirming care for minors nationwide, although the legislation has stalled in the Senate.
Ms. Varian’s successful lawsuit may put an end to gender-affirming care for minors faster than national legislation or executive action. Her $2 million reward may disincentivize the medical community from performing these procedures altogether because of the enormous financial risk. Without medical malpractice insurance, it will be game over.
Currently, 28 detransitioner lawsuits are pending across the U.S. Ms. Varian’s case sets a precedent for others.
• Kelly Sadler is the commentary editor at The Washington Times.
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