The Philadelphia Center for Transgender Surgery lists estimated prices for their procedures online. At a cost of $25,600 for bottom surgery, nearly $60,000 for “top” (breast) and body surgery and more than $70,000 for facial reconstruction. That tally puts the surgery alone at north of $150,000. Add in $1,500 in HRT annually for an average American lifespan of 79 years old, and someone who transitions at age 25 will pay well over $200,000 over their lifetime for transitioning.
If the process begins in childhood, that number will soar even higher. More and more children are being prescribed puberty blockers due to diagnoses of gender dysphoria, which they may stay on for years before undergoing a sex change operation. Those pills could cost anywhere from $4,000 to $25,000 per year without insurance, according to one National Institutes of Health (NIH) study.