Reading over them, the main difference that I could find is that the study that claimed it was uncommon made a point of making sure not to count breast reductions performed on cisgender male minors with gynecomastia, even though those are technically "gender affirming care." I couldn't tell if the "Do No Harm" study did that or not. The other study was also over a shorter time frame, I suppose it's possible that gender affirming surgeries have skyrocketed since then, but that would mean that the recent push back against them has had no effect, which is counterintuitive.
Unfortunately, I simply do not trust academic studies that conform so neatly to activist/ideological claims. Even just anecdotal following of cases suggests they are way more common than the study claims.
It appears that Trans surgical interventions on minors are more common than is claimed.
https://nypost.com/2024/10/08/us-news/over-5700-americans-under-18-had-trans-surgery-from-2019-23/
Even puberty blockers are a dubious intervention.
The normal pattern in these things is
(1) X is not happening.
(2) X is happening, but not very much.
(3) X is happening, and that is a good thing.
Since Trans is somewhat in retreat, it appears that this progression is in retreat.
I found another study done over the same time frame that got the opposite result:
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/gender-affirming-surgeries-rarely-performed-on-transgender-youth/
Reading over them, the main difference that I could find is that the study that claimed it was uncommon made a point of making sure not to count breast reductions performed on cisgender male minors with gynecomastia, even though those are technically "gender affirming care." I couldn't tell if the "Do No Harm" study did that or not. The other study was also over a shorter time frame, I suppose it's possible that gender affirming surgeries have skyrocketed since then, but that would mean that the recent push back against them has had no effect, which is counterintuitive.
Unfortunately, I simply do not trust academic studies that conform so neatly to activist/ideological claims. Even just anecdotal following of cases suggests they are way more common than the study claims.
See also https://christopherrufo.com/p/sex-change-procedures-at-texas-childrens
See also https://x.com/AndreaCohenHaim/status/1882894821985296617