A new regulation in Oregon now allows people as young as 15 years old to undergo sex-change operation even without parental consent.

Many Oregon residents, Fox News reported, were taken by surprise when they found out that children can now go to a clinic and undergo a sex change even without the consent of their parents.

"It is trespassing on the hearts, the minds, the bodies of our children," said Lori Porter of Parents' Rights in Education. "They're our children. And for a decision, a life-altering decision like that to be done unbeknownst to a parent or guardian, it's mindboggling."

The age of consent in Oregon is 15, according to Oregon's Health Authority spokeswoman Susan Wickstrom.

Oregon's Health Evidence Review Committee (HERC)—whose members include doctors, nurses, chiropractic patients and health plan administrators—approved August last year such medical procedures as cross-sex hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery under gender dysphoria in addition to puberty suppression hormones for gender-questioning youth under the Oregon Health Plan (OHP), the state's Medicaid program. It became effective last Jan. 1.

Gender dysphoria, the HERC said, is "a condition in which a person does not feel that their gender identify conforms with their birth gender."

According to the HERC, its Value-based Benefits Subcommittee heard testimonies from experts and reviewed relevant literature last year that focused on the effectiveness of cross-sex hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery to relieve gender dysphoria, reducing depression and anxiety and reducing rates of suicides and suicide attempts.

After the hearing, gender dysphoria was moved into the covered portion of the health plans' prioritised list.

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) classifies gender dysphoria as a mental disorder and this is manifested in many ways including "strong desires to be treated as the other gender or to be rid of one's sex characteristics, or a strong conviction that one has feelings and reactions typical of the other gender."

The HERC's move has been described by Dr. Paul McHugh, who became the head of the Johns Hopkins Psychiatry Department, as child abuse.

"We have a very radical and even mutilating treatment being offered to children without any evidence that the long-term outcome of this would be good," he said.

Dr. Jack Drescher, a member of the APA, said Oregon is offering the treatment for gender dysphoria too early.

"Children age 15 may not fully understand all the consequences of the procedures they are undergoing," he said.

Jenn Burleton of TransActive Gender Center, who underwent sex-reassignment surgery, said asking for parental consent would result to more suffering and teen suicide attempts.

"Parents may not be supportive. They may not be in an environment where they feel the parent will affirm their identity, this may have been going on for years," Burleton said.