More specifically, gender is not a social construct. It is fundamental biological reality.
If your are born with XX chromosomes, you are female. If you are born with XY chromosomes, you are male. Nothing any human being can do, to include surgery, can change that fundamental fact.
Now in a free society, people are free to live their lives as they see fit. This can include medical mutilation if they (as an adult) wish, and are willing to pay.
However, the societal pressures to redefine gender absent biological reality is beyond foolish. To do so for a adolescent is worse, they are not addressing the problem, just the symptoms, ill-serving a confused and unhappy teenager.
Exactly...
I disagree. There have to be enforceable medical ethical standards, and one is that a surgeon should not intentionally maim a delusional patient, even at the patient's request.
Such a patient should be referred for psychiatric treatment, not sexual mutilation. A surgeon who sexually disables an emotionally disturbed patient is ethically akin to a paid killer.