The study was not only funded by Allergan, but all seven doctors behind the research had ties to the company as advisory board members, investigators or paid consultants except for one who was both an employee and stockholder, according to the study. One of the authors, Dr. Terrence Keaney, has received more than $436,000 from the company since 2015, and another author, Dr. Alexander Rivkin, received more than $323,000 in the same time frame, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Advocates of cross-sex surgeries have successfully branded the procedures as medically necessary by arguing that, without them, transgender people are less satisfied with their lives and more likely to commit suicide. Medical industry leaders in recent years have pushed to add cosmetic procedures, including facial contouring and laser hair removal, to the growing list of treatments considered medically necessary for transgender people, which could line the pockets of pharmaceutical companies and medical providers by forcing insurers to cover them, according to a previous DCNF