Grateful child draws a picture to thank surgeon for mastectomy **MNHQ content warning for upsetting image*

[Haworthia]

Tweeted by Janice Turner and Keira Bell.

How upsetting is this?

Vile.

I wish I had not looked. Is that for real? I so hope that young person was sent for counselling to talk about their body-hatred before that happened.

It also strikes me that 'top surgery' is performed (both ways) as if it were so unproblematic and as if breasts meant nothing.

I think the not showing of female nipples is to do with Instagram, to be fair. But this is horrific.

The obscuring of “female” nipples will be to ensure the posts don’t get deleted by Instagram. Because he can’t afford to get his posts deleted when Instagram is such a great way to reach your target market.

I’ve seen “top surgery” doctors shilling on Tiktok too.

I am sorry bubble that has happened to you

I have reported it, and requested a trigger warning as I was worried some would find that image very difficult to look at for reasons you have mentioned. to you

Yeah this guy’s in Marylebone, London.

Just looked at that Instagram account.
I would recommend that others don’t.

Also, there’s a huge amount of personally-identifiable photographs on that account and I’m surprised that patients are OK with that.

:-(

I don't see any obscuring of nipples. I would consider the supposed child to be maybe 10-12? At that age I could draw like that (didn't really improve any further..... ) and kids start having an awareness of their world (how hospitals work, blood involved, how an adult body looks like.... my boobs started growing at 9!!)

I wouldn't dismiss the possibility of it being fake but I can consider a mother explaining to her child why they were going to be at hospital

I also feel a bit sick seeing that picture.
The drawing quality is better than mine, but yes as PPstated - a grown up wouldn't give a picture to thank the surgeon.

Also. I really, really dislike the use of “top” and “bottom” surgery. If you can't name it, you're not mature enough to consent to cut it off.

@grey12 I posted a screenshot of the surgeon’s Instagram homepage which shows photos of his patients pre and post surgery, hence the talk about obscuring female nipples.

This is absolutely genuine. If you visit the account yourself and scroll down you’ll come across the drawing, dated Sept 2018.

I don't 'get' it; why would a child have a mastectomy?

Sorry OP, though they were talking about the drawing silly me

I meant whether it was really done by a child of a patient or whether they could have faked the picture for popularity (crazy world.......)

Fucking hell. That's horrific. And his sense of 'rightness is at an all-time high'? Deeply disturbing and something very wrong. The quite obvious lack of humanity is terrifying.

That's genuinely shocking.

Having lost relatives to breast cancer, I'm aware of how physically traumatising a mastectomy can be. Not just the loss of breast tissue, but the removal of glands under the arm, which in extreme cases can restrict arm motion etc.

Does anyone know whether mastectomies on teenage girls are similarly invasive, or whether because it's just lopping off healthy tissue* the damage is less extensive?

(*God, I could cry just thinking about teenage girls removing healthy body parts)

If this doctor is based in the UK, then legally he wouldn't have been able to perform a mastectomy on an under-18 year old. So unless he's operating illegally, then we have to assume that the person who drew that was 18 or more.

It’s shocking that a surgeon is asking others to send in pictures of their surgery

Do surgeons do this for any other surgery ?

If an over 18 drew that there's something highly suspicious going on - serious developmental delay/ non neurotypical aspects to the way they conceptualise the world/ serious damage to normal cognitive development due to puberty blockers.

@LizFlowers

I don't 'get' it; why would a child have a mastectomy?

Because she thinks she's a boy.

In the US girls as young as 13 who are confused about their 'gender identity' have had mastectomies.

I think the title is misleading, this surgeon is in the UK and therefore not operating on under 18s, if he was doing so illegally then he would hardly be drawing attention to the fact.

The patient must have been an legally consenting adult. I ding it bizarre that a grown up has drawn this but it could have been a sibling or child related to the patient, we don't have any context.

Agree - if this is in the UK, this could not have been a child (legally). In the US it could have been, but there's no need to misrepresent facts.

But on the other hand, an over-18-year-old who's had years of puberty blocked is not the same thing as an over-18-year-old who's had normal childhood development. Their adulthood has been deliberately delayed.

If puberty blockers do what they say on the tin, surely 5 years of puberty blocking makes you an adult at 23, not 18? (Assuming best case where it is just a "pause").

The legal 18 threshold was set for typical normal development, not those who have it stopped.

The mistake many seem to make is that "puberty" = "sexual development". No, it encompasses the overall transition to adult. We don't know how much "puberty blockers" affect things other than the directly visible sex characteristics, so it's unreasonable to assume they only affect that.

The picture is awful, but we have no way of knowing the age of htthe person who drew it.

'my sense of rightness'. Bit of an odd phrase, that.

@tellmewhentheLangshiplandscoz

Agree with others it's highly unlikely anyone of teenage years and above would draw a picture to say thank you. Regardless of age, It's fucking disgusting a so called medical professional would do this surgery on a women whose body (whether they like how it looks or not is irrelevant) is working as it's intended, in the first place, never mind show the results off on social media like some weird trophies.

And if it is an adult patient there is something quite creepy about doing such a childish picture ... why infantilise it like this?

What has to happen to stop people cheerleading this abuse?

You could say that about any cosmetic surgery though, nose job, boob jaw, jaw surgery.

I don't agree with puberty blockers for children or anything like that but I don't think performing top surgery on a consenting adult who has had counselling and lived as their chosen gender for a few years is anything to be vilified.

If this doctor is based in the UK, then legally he wouldn't have been able to perform a mastectomy on an under-18 year old

I’m interested @RoyalCorgi, is it really illegal to perform this kind of surgery on under 18s in the private sector? And does that apply to all cosmetic surgery, even procedures like rhinoplasty?

I absolutely did not intend to mislead anyone with this thread or thread title. It simply did not cross my mind for a second that this picture was drawn by someone aged 18+. It doesn’t seem possible.

OldCrone: Because she thinks she's a boy.

In the US girls as young as 13 who are confused about their 'gender identity' have had mastectomies.
...
Ah, I get it. It's not here in the UK.

Gross.