I wasn’t talking specifically about trans dysphoria above, but having had to navigate those guidelines personally, I can certainly attest that they prioritized societal fertility over the needs of US patients. Fourteen letters of approval and two years and $25,000 of professional consulting required (at US cash rates before insurance) to receive a single body edit out of the four required. Cis women who aren’t even trans at all can get next-day breast inflation but must pursue months of paperwork and approvals for breast deflation (and the exact opposite for cis men, too). Tattoos are walk-in and don’t always have sobriety requirements. Religious body edits that permanently impair sexual function are routinely performed at birth without the consent of, and sometimes over the objections of, the newborn’s parents. (This is not a comprehensive list of US body editing biases, just some highlights as examples.)

Point being, cultural biases are reflected in body edit difficulties, and each culture has their own biases and stupidities. That should not prevent us from aspiring towards a better future, where body edits are uniformly treated with care, caution, and consent — rather than varying degrees condescension and Gilliam’s “Brazil” levels of bureaucratic bullshit and bribes: https://youtu.be/VveTsyjFlNA

This article may have done a terrible job at advancing any useful goals in the field of body editing, but the headline sure is some top-shelf clickbait.