Go Ad Free

Internal government records obtained by Rebel News through access-to-information requests show that British Columbia has performed gender-affirming surgeries on minors and funded thousands of instances of hormone treatment for children over the past five years.

The records were released by the BC Ministry of Health in response to a Freedom of Information request seeking age breakdowns for surgical and non-surgical gender-related medical interventions between 2021 and mid-2025.

Pediatric Surgeries Performed Every Year

According to the province’s own data, British Columbia performed what it classifies as “upper gender-affirming surgeries” on minors every year from the 2020–21 to 2024–25 fiscal periods.

Footnotes in the government spreadsheet state that the most common “upper” procedures include mastectomy.

The pediatric counts reported by the province are as follows:

• 23 minors in 2020–21
• 23 minors in 2021–22
• 19 minors in 2022–23
• Fewer than five minors in 2023–24 (exact number suppressed for privacy reasons)
• 6 minors in 2024–25

Because one year is reported only as “<5,” the precise total cannot be calculated. However, the minimum confirmed number of pediatric upper surgeries over the five-year period is 72.

Thousands of Pediatric Hormone Treatments Funded

In addition to surgical data, the Ministry of Health released PharmaCare records showing the number of pediatric patients receiving publicly funded gender-affirming pharmaceuticals each year.

The data reports unique pediatric patient counts per fiscal year, meaning some children may appear in more than one year.

The yearly totals are:

• 363 pediatric patients in 2020–21
• 432 in 2021–22
• 517 in 2022–23
• 500 in 2023–24
• 411 in 2024–25

Taken together, the records show 2,223 pediatric patient-years of publicly funded gender-affirming drug treatment during the five-year period.

The drug categories listed in the records include testosterone, estrogen or estradiol, and leuprolide acetate — medications known to significantly affect sexual development and fertility.

Because the same patient can receive more than one drug or appear in multiple years, the government cautions that the figures should not be interpreted as a count of unique children.

The release of these records comes amid growing debate across Canada over medical interventions for minors with gender dysphoria. Alberta has moved to restrict sex reassignment surgery for minors and impose tighter controls on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for children, citing concerns about consent, long-term outcomes, and irreversible harm.

While other provinces have resisted similar measures, the BC data provides a rare, government-sourced snapshot of how frequently these interventions have been funded and performed on minors.

Rebel News obtained the records through access-to-information laws after the data was not proactively disclosed by the province.