Gender dysphoric patients suffer at the hands of unethical doctors

Hot on the heels of detransitioner Keira Bell's lawsuit against the National Health Service's gender identity clinic, another victim of so-called "transgender healthcare" has stepped up to ask tough questions of this most under-regulated part of the medical industry.

Scott Newgent is a trans activist who wants to see an end to pediatric "transitioning" and higher clinical standards for adults who wish to modify their bodies to resemble the other sex. Newgent wrote:

"I wasn't 'born in the wrong body.' I was born female. But I didn't like it. So I changed my appearance, at significant monetary, psychological, and physical cost, with plastic surgery and hormones. My sex never changed, though. Only my appearance changed."

At the age of 41, Newgent embarked on the process of spending $1 million on so-called "transgender healthcare" body modifications which caused irreversible damage.

Newgent said "After my surgery with Dr. Crane I had a massive pulmonary embolism [and] endured a stress heart attack. I had to have reconstruction surgery to a ligament that was protruding from my arm and now I'm handicapped for life. I also had to have 6 inches of hair removed from my urethra…that caused a 17 month infection that almost took my life."

Newgent said "During the process of medical transition, I have had seven surgeries, one massive pulmonary embolism, one helicopter life-flight ride, an emergency ambulance ride, induced stress heart attack, sepsis, 17-month recurring infection due to using the wrong skin during a phalloplasty, 16 rounds of antibiotics, three weeks of daily IV antibiotics, lost all my hair, arm reconstructive surgery, handicapped arm, permanent lung, and heart damage, my bladder was cut, I had insomnia induced hallucinations, frequently loss of consciousness due to pain from the 6 inches of hair on the inside of my urethra, significant PTSD that made me a prisoner in my apartment for a year not able, failed phalloplasty, billed $923,980 for medical expenses, I lost my home, car, job, career, wife, and I could no longer care for my kids due to medical complications."

Concerned that children as young as three were being groomed to think of themselves as "trans," with a view to undergoing experimental body modifications, Newgent wants to warn parents about the hazards of bringing children who believe they should be the other sex to gender clinics.

Six years down the line, Newgent deeply regrets the body modifications, saying:

"I wish I'd known then what I know now. I can tell you that the information out there regarding transition is heavily weighted to one side, and people must have factual information to make decisions…"

Dr. Curtis Crane MD, who performed multiple surgeries on Newgent from 2014 onwards, was the defendant in nine clinical malpractice claims in California during 2017-18. Each was the subject of a Non Disclosure Agreement with his former patients.

Crane retains licenses to practice medicine in California and Texas.

Newgent said "I went to eight different attorneys about that surgeon. Each wanted to take on my case, but after they investigated, they found out there is no baseline for care. We have nothing to compare outcomes for medical transition, so it's a free-for-all, and the medical industry knows this."

Dr. Crane claims to be "one of the only people worldwide who is dually trained in both Urology and Plastic Surgery." He has been described as "acquiring penis-making skills." Of course, this is pure marketing. The only human capable of making a penis is a mother, according to nature's code.

It is a matter of public record that the phalloplasty procedures inflicted on women who wish they were men result in a useless appendage without sensation, at best, gangrene and necrosis at worst.

Despite the repeated failure of phalloplasty experiments, Dr. Crane seems to harbour a grandiose fantasy of himself as a great creator of new human beings, or at least the sexual organs of human beings. In interview, he said "the genitalia we build are my children."

Of phalloplasty, he said that the pump which mimics an erection means "You become superhuman, you become part cyborg and your penis has superhuman capabilities… They want to be erect all of Burning Man, they can."

In light of the dismal facts, this is an irresponsible sales message. Crane promises women that they can obtain a super-macho experience of male sexual pleasure. In reality, they can expect pain and humiliation.

Crane laughed about a prospective patient who wanted him to make a tail which could be grafted onto the body.

"I was like, 'Well, that's very interesting.' I guess I could drop down a pair of spineless flaps and then skin graft it and I'm like, 'Would you want it to move?'"

The only obstacle Dr. Crane saw to such a procedure was not ethical, but technical.

"I'm like, 'Let's think about innervation.' I was like, 'I don't know if we should do this.'"

Dr. Crane performs a rare body modification procedure known as "genital nullification," which involves amputating reproductive organs for reasons of normalizing sexual trauma.

In an interview, he said

"I've done a few [full penectomies]. We get a few requests a year, and I think it's a good service to provide to the community."

Crane now advertises these "nullo" procedures as a form of "non-binary" surgery on his website. Suddenly, young people declaring themselves "non-binary" doesn't seem like a harmless youth fad. Crane also considers creating a second set of pseudo-genitals while the subject retains their natural genitals as a form of "non-binary" surgery.

It is notable that only in the United States of America is there the tolerance within the medical community for "non-binary" surgical experiments on traumatized people. Only in the US is there no duty to explore the underlying reasons why people seek to undergo these extreme body modifications.

Crane believes that medical ethics begin and end with the concepts of bodily autonomy and informed consent. However, children are incapable of either, and it is doubtful whether adults who are either mentally unwell, or on the autism spectrum, are capable of consenting to experimental procedures with zero curative benefit.

Crane is a devotee of queer theory, a strand of academia in which the only purpose of social norms is to dismantle and upend them.

"The ethics in medicine comes down to 'Are you acting in the best interests of your patient?' If you are, then you are ethical…I use that belief system to ignore social and cultural norms. Yes, back in 2012 some people gave me sh*t for building a phallus for someone that wanted to keep his vagina."

He hand waves away the fact that people who "identify as" trans suffer from co-morbid mental health conditions, saying that "depression, anxiety and other psychiatric diagnoses […] need to be in check to help with a successful transition and a successful surgery."

This is putting the cart before the horse. If the patient's mental health struggles were alleviated by therapy which got to the root of their body dysmorphia, for example, or to find out whether a neurological diagnosis was relevant, they might not feel the desire to go under the knife.

In that case, Crane would be out of a job performing body modifications on traumatized people. He would have to go back to performing urology procedures on people with physical health problems.

I will leave it to the reader to decide whether or not that would be a good thing for society at large.