When they mean minor in this case, they are referring to children 16 and older who have parental approval, and the approval of at least one psychiatrist and psychologist who have determined that a surgery is medically required to treat body dysphoria and that there is no other option.

There is nowhere on the planet that 10 year olds are getting surgeries, but the phrase “trans minors” is used by reactionaries to obfuscate the issue and make people believe that the phrase is referring to small children.

Further, receiving approval for a gender affirming surgery as a minor is horrifically difficult. The process takes several years as the child must have a substantiated and documented history of body dysphoria by medical professionals. A process that is costly, time consuming, and emotionally and mentally draining. If a person is not committed they will simply not be able to follow through; as it would be like putting your legs in an industrial just for fun. No sane person is doing that just because they feel like it.

Trans affirming surgeries have an astonishingly negligible regret and reversal rate. Hip replacement surgeries have a regret rate magnitudes higher for example. This is because of how arduous and thorough the screening process is.