A New York jury has awarded $2 million to a woman who underwent a double mastectomy at age 16 and now says she “no longer thinks of herself as a male.”
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A jury in Westchester County, New York, found a psychologist and a plastic surgeon liable for medical malpractice in connection with the 2019 surgery performed on Fox Varian to treat gender dysphoria. The verdict includes $1.6 million for past and future pain and suffering, along with $400,000 for future medical expenses.
Varian’s attorneys said she no longer identifies as male and argued that psychologist Kenneth Einhorn and surgeon Simon Chin failed to meet professional standards. They alleged inadequate psychological evaluation, poor communication between providers, and insufficient screening before proceeding with what they described as an irreversible procedure.
The trial focused on whether Varian’s mental health and readiness for what is often referred to as “gender-affirming surgery” were properly evaluated. Her legal team maintained that the surgery resulted in lasting physical harm, medical complications, and ongoing psychological distress.
In a statement, her lawyers said that “any medical provider who departs from accepted medical standards, regardless of the context of the treatment, should be held accountable in a court of law for the injuries that result.”
They added: “This case was not a statement or referendum on the appropriateness of gender-affirming care for adults or minors. Instead, it was about whether physicians adhered to their professional and ethical obligations when providing that care to Fox.”
The defendants argued that their treatment met accepted medical standards at the time and that Varian had provided informed consent. The jury ultimately ruled in Varian’s favor.
Dr. Alfonso Oliva, a board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon who was not involved in the case and serves on the board of the Catholic Medical Association, told EWTN News that “patients are often not given full information of the risks associated with medical transitions,” pointing to what he described as “very high complication rates” in surgical transitions for adolescents and adults.
Oliva said inversion penile vaginoplasty carries a 70% complication rate, calling it “a very high number for any procedure, and yet it’s tolerated as a norm.” He added that surgeries performed on women to simulate male genitalia carry complication risks of “35–40%, which is also very high.”
According to Oliva, “There’s not full disclosure by medical professionals of what happens to these children after these surgeries.” He said patients often face sterility and sexual dysfunction, adding that “especially young boys, many of whom won’t have sexual function or the ability to orgasm in the future.”
“These are not reversible interventions,” Oliva continued. “Normal brain development, which is not completed until 25, is interrupted through hormone therapy.” He also cited risks such as obesity, diabetes, and skeletal development problems that he said are not adequately discussed, nor is there “a significant psychiatric evaluation of these children, who are suffering, but we don’t get to the bottom of the suffering.”
Oliva referenced scientific research on the topic, including the 2024 Cass Review, an independent study commissioned by the U.K.’s National Health Service, which concluded that the evidence supporting medical interventions such as puberty blockers and hormone treatments is “remarkably weak.”
He also cited a Swedish study on long-term outcomes following sex reassignment surgery, which found increased risks of mortality, suicidal behavior, and psychiatric disorders compared with the general population.
“Their risk of suicide 10 years after transgender surgery was found to be 19 times that of the general population,” Oliva said. “If we wait for the initial euphoria after surgery subsides, and we evaluate suicide rates, we see that the surgery itself did not improve the psychological well-being of these patients.”
Oliva further stated that parents are often pressured into agreeing to treatment because they are “fed the idea that their child will commit suicide if they are not allowed to transition,” which he said “is not the truth.” Oliva argued that statutes of limitations for medical malpractice cases should be extended nationwide, noting that in Washington state they are “only three years.” “In many cases, these young adults don’t realize that they made a big mistake until years afterward,” he said.
While New York does not impose caps on malpractice damages, Houston-based attorney Marcella Burke told EWTN News that “existing statutory caps on medical malpractice damages … are insufficient in most states to provide meaningful compensation to children harmed and insufficient deterrence to the medical establishments and practitioners who perform these procedures.”
Burke, who represents Dr. Eithan Haim in litigation involving Texas Children’s Hospital, said: “I have seen firsthand the profound physical, psychological, and emotional injuries these interventions can cause.” She noted that Texas has a $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages and said such limits “fail to reflect the gravity of these lifelong consequences for children who were too young to give truly informed consent.”
“These caps were designed for typical medical errors, not for cases involving irreversible procedures pushed on vulnerable minors amid ideological pressures rather than rigorous, evidence-based standards of care,” she said. Burke called on state legislatures to raise or remove caps “in a narrowly tailored way for claims arising specifically from gender transition procedures on minors,” allowing juries to award damages that reflect “the devastating, long-term harm inflicted.”
Oliva also said specialized clinics are needed to help the “tens of thousands” of patients who later seek to detransition.
“Once they realize, ‘Oh my goodness, maybe I made a big mistake,’ there’s nobody to take care of them medically right now,” he said. “They’re persona non grata at their clinic; looked down on as a failure by their community.” He added that many patients struggle with stopping hormones or managing surgical complications and that “no one is really taking care of them.”