The Money Question: Should Everyone Else Pay for Transgender Surgeries?

Detransitioners answer with a clear “no,” and they give three main reasons drawn from their own experiences and from watching the system around them.

1. State cash keeps the wheels turning.
Several posters say that once hospitals know the government (or mandated insurance) will pay, they raise the price and market the service hard. “Right now this is rampant because gender treatment is state-funded! … If they no longer get paid by the state to do this, they will stop promoting it.” – TheDorkyDane source [citation:7ece07fd-a90d-4117-85b3-6b31b91bf38d]
In their view, public money turns transition care into a profit centre instead of a last-resort treatment.

2. The same cut is “cosmetic” for some, “life-saving” for others.
Detransitioners point to mastectomies: when the patient says it is for gender dysphoria, insurance or state funds cover travel, hotel, surgeon and after-care; when a cis man with gynecomastia or a woman with excess skin after weight-loss asks for an identical operation, the answer is “self-pay.” “The exact same procedure … is covered … if you are FtM. If you are just a cis male … you have to pay for that … out of pocket.” – super-porp-cola source [citation:5352c8d5-32ca-4d60-9b27-8770c04cfdf5]
They see this as an ethical double standard that forces the public to bankroll one group’s cosmetic goals while denying help to others.

3. If people had to reach for their own wallets, demand would shrink.
Because hormones and surgeries cost thousands, posters predict most users would back out without subsidies. “If people have to pay for their own gender surgery and drugs, most won’t be able to afford it; the problem … would largely solve itself by simply stopping funding.” – TheDorkyDane source [citation:7ece07fd-a90d-4117-85b3-6b31b91bf38d]
They argue that re-labelling these interventions as elective, self-funded body-modification would protect both public budgets and uncertain patients from rushed medical steps.

Taken together, the testimonies paint taxpayer-funded transition care as a policy that props up demand, creates unequal access, and nudges people toward irreversible procedures. Detransitioners recommend one straightforward fix: keep the option legal, but leave the bill with the individual, turning it into the same kind of personal, planned purchase society expects for tattoos, cosmetic dentistry or any other elective body change.