Mr Joseph Chrysostom MBBS, MS (General Surgery), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh is a retired Associate Specialist in A&E, working in a university health board in South Wales. His professional interests lie in the emergency initial management and resuscitation of surgical patients and major trauma cases. He is also an Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) instructor with the Royal College of Surgeons in London.
Mr Chrysostom recently gave evidence about gender affirming surgery (mastectomy, vaginoplasty and phalloplasty) to a group of parliamentarians. His main criticisms are that these surgeries are based on deception and carry significant risk, and questions therefore whether patients can give informed consent. He calls for the surgeries to be suspended pending independent inquiry.
My Lords, Baronesses, Members of Parliament, and Honoured Guests,
Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. I address you as a medical professional who has watched with growing concern the rise of so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ in the UK.
Gender affirming care is a systematic medical deception.
There are two deceptions here
- Sex can be changed or re-assigned
- Vaginoplasty and phalloplasty operations create vagina and phallus respectively.
But, sex can never be changed or re-assigned. These operations do not create a vagina or a penis.
These irreversible mutilations of healthy young bodies are taking place within the NHS, NHS funded private hospitals and private hospitals, and they are happening not far away from this parliament.
Let me start from the beginning, in our schools, children are taught that sex is “assigned at birth,” that gender is fluid, and that a person might be “born in the wrong body.” These are not scientific statements. They are ideological assertions, unsupported by biology or evidence.
The truth is sex is assigned the moment fertilization takes place at conception and is biologically very evident by the 7th week of intrauterine life. Sex is registered at birth and not assigned.
The conveyor belt of deception begins in classrooms, where children are encouraged to explore gender identity, and continues through social transition, referrals to gender clinics, and prescriptions for cross-sex hormones — ultimately ending on the operating tables of surgeons.
Take vaginoplasty, the most common genital surgery performed on males who identify as female. It is advertised as “creating a vagina.” That claim is false. All it creates is a deep surgical wound that is lined by skin. The body rightfully recognises this as a wound and tries to heal it from all directions. To prevent this wound closing off the patient has to endure painful dilatations for the rest of their lives.
This surgery can lead to multiple complications including sepsis, fistulation and even death.
Let me describe to you, in professional and surgical terms, what these procedures entail. What I am going to describe is a bit graphic in nature and is not for the feeble minded. But if listening about these procedures makes one uncomfortable, think about the plight of young adults and adolescents of our country who are being deceived to under go these mutilating surgeries in the name of changing sex.
- More than 90% of the shaft of the penis is amputated at the root of the penis. A small portion of the tip of the penis is then shaped into a so-called neoclitoris.
- Next, both the testicles are chopped off. Let me remind you that these testicles and the penis are normal with no disease.
- A deep artificial cavity is dissected between the urinary bladder and rectum. This is not a natural space to have a cavity in the male body—it is a wound. The redundant penile and scrotal skin are used to line this unnatural cavity. This is what they call a “neovagina.”
This is far from being a vagina. Unlike a natural vagina it cannot menstruate, it cannot bear children. It does not self-lubricate or cleanse itself and hence it is prone for infections and necrosis. There is no cervix, no uterus, no ovaries.This cavity does not possess the lining that provides glycogen to maintain the acidic pH that is required to prevent infections as in a natural vagina. Therefore anatomically, physiologically biochemically and microbiologically this is not a vagina. So calling this surgery as a Vaginoplasty is a deception.
I wish to highlight the complication of Recto-neovaginal fistula associated with this operation. This means an abnormal passage has developed between the rectum and the newly created cavity causing continuous uncontrolled leakage of faeces into the newly created cavity. This condition can lead to septicaemia in the immediate post-operative period. To fix this problem the patient will need to undergo another major surgery that involves creation of a colostomy and dissection in the inflamed perineum to disconnect this new abnormal passage between the rectum and this cavity. Because this rescue operation is very hazardous some surgeons may opt for a permanent colostomy for these patients to save life.
Recently I have heard of private hospitals offering bilateral orchidectomies as standalone procedures. Bilateral orchidectomy means removal of both testicles. Bilateral orchidectomy leads to severe testosterone depletion in a male body making the individual prone to atherosclerosis and metabolic syndrome. This is due to profound alterations in cholesterol metabolism. We can expect a tsunami of heart attacks and strokes on these unfortunate castrated individuals within the next decade.
Let us now consider phalloplasty, offered to females identifying as male.
This procedure involves harvesting a large skin and fat flap, often from the forearm, and rolling it into a tube. That tube is then sewn onto the pubis and described as a penis.
Unlike a biological penis this has no erectile tissue, no glans, no capacity for ejaculation or reproduction. It is impossible for these surgeons to create a prostate or seminal vesicles that are part of male reproductive anatomy.
The end result is a mound of skin and fat, not a functioning penis. The patient is told they are now a male. Again, a deception.
The third procedure is bilateral mastectomy. Thousands of healthy young women are now undergoing double mastectomies with no disease present. Their breasts are removed, discarded, and often not even sent for histological examination.
This procedure results in the permanent loss of the ability to breastfeed—an essential biological function. The World Health Organization (WHO) strongly recommends breastfeeding for all infants due to its critical health benefits. Furthermore, the surgery leaves prominent and often disfiguring scars across the chest. This procedures certainly does not make that chest a male chest.
And the question we must all ask is this:
How did we get here? How did the UK come to perform medically unnecessary amputations of healthy organs on healthy young people, based on nothing more than self-declared identity?
To get answers, I have written to professional bodies such as the Royal College of Surgeons, Royal College of Anaesthetists, Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of General Practitioners and the General Medical Council. None of the professional bodies endorse these operations nor do they deny that these are deceptions. I have now written to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman as advised by the General Medical Council more than a month ago and I am yet to receive a formal reply to my concerns.
I raised my concerns with the Prime Minister’s Office, which referred the matter to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The DHSC, in turn, directed me to NHS England. However, when I contacted NHS England as advised, they referred me back to the DHSC. This circular response from the two bodies responsible for overseeing these procedures failed to address my concerns. Notably, neither organisation denied that deception is involved in these operations.
It is still unclear to me who is responsible for these unscientific, unethical, deceptive surgeries that are being practised in this country both within and outside NHS.
Surgeons say they are following patient’s choice. But patients are being misled into thinking that they can be transformed from male to female, or female to male, through scalpel and hormones. This is biologically impossible due to the fact that it is impossible to change the genetic make up of more than 30 trillion human cells.
And many young physically fit men and women who undergo these surgeries become lifelong medical patients due to many complications. Many regret undergoing these surgeries, but unfortunately they are irreversible damages.
Every working day in Britain young people are undergoing irreversible genital surgery. Breasts, penises, testicles—all removed and destroyed in the name of “affirmation.”
It is time to call this as what it is: a medical scandal.
And Parliament must act. Now. When the government pays for irreversible surgeries performed on the basis of false claims—that a wound is a vagina or that a skin flap is a penis—this is not healthcare. It is publicly funded deception, and it raises the question whether the state is complicit in medical fraud.
My Lords, Baronesses, and Members of Parliament, you were appointed or elected to safeguard the public interest. This is a national safeguarding emergency. You must act
To suspend these surgeries immediately pending independent inquiry.
Investigate whether true informed consent is occurring. I believe these are mis-informed consents.
Legislating against these deceptive operations is the only way to stop this medical scandal.
Thank you.