Meet Dr. Sidhbh Gallagher, dubbed the Butcher of Louth (and with good reason).
Gallagher is a surgeon who has made a name for herself in performing what she calls 'gender confirmation surgery' out of her private practice in Miami, Florida.
Her website states, without a hint of irony, that she
"always seeks to combine her artistic flair with the latest cutting edge techniques".
Gallagher hails from County Louth in Ireland. According to her online
biography, she studied medicine at University College Dublin (UCD). She then moved over to the USA where she
"completed eight more years of intensive surgical training". Following her training, she
"served as an assistant professor at Indiana University" between 2015 and 2020.
Gallagher is clearly extremely experienced. This is precisely what makes her dangerous.
Over the past number of years, she has performed thousands of surgical procedures on children and adults alike suffering from gender dysphoria.
She is particularly infamous due to her style of brand management and publicity, which she primarily conducts over social media platforms, such as
TikTok and
Instagram. Her Instagram profile picture is a cartoon of her in her medical scrubs looking highly assertive, with a background of the trans pride flag colours. Her pronouns are proudly displayed next door. There is no doubt at all which segment of society Gallagher is attempting to appeal to.
Gallagher's social media profiles can properly be described as a showcasing the catalogue of bodies she has mutilated over the years, interspersed with photographs of her enjoying life at swanky hotels and bars (one assumes being paid for from the proceeds of her surgical procedures).
She is no stranger to controversy, appearing at times to actively court it. For example, she has previously nicknamed herself
"Dr Teetus Deletus" and frequently uses the phrase
"Yeet the Teets" when referring to the double mastectomies she performs on significant numbers of girls and women every year ('yeet' is a slang term to describe throwing something away). The fact that she can carry out such acts of barbarism while making a joke is extremely telling.
The content she puts out online is particularly troubling for someone who is supposedly a medical professional. In videos such as
this, she pitches to prospective victims (sorry, I mean patients) the benefits of having surgery done in Miami, with plenty of beach and pool shots, and featuring upbeat pop music in the background. This can only be described as glorifying such surgery.
In a
video talking through the surgery she provides to remove penis and testicles, she has, shockingly, chosen the song 'Take Your Man' to play in the background.
In another
video, putting on a dress-up outfit and a fake voice, she distils the entire argument of those concerned with gender ideology into a single sentence –
"you're a dude".
For someone supposedly treating a debilitating mental health condition, she certainly lacks nuance.
There are no limits to her aspirations when it comes to removal of healthy body parts of her patients. In this
clip, she speaks hopefully of the day in which technology has advanced to allow the
"3D printing of genitals".
She even describes a uterus as the
"perfect organ to transplant…it comes out when it's job is done".
One of the most striking
videos for me was one in which she included photographs of herself as a child. It truly brings home the enormity of the fact that someone who was once a young girl, now facilitates the bodily mutilation of other young girls.
It is no wonder that a formal
complaint has been made to the Federal Trade Commission on the basis of her
"deceptively nudging vulnerable teens into sex change operations".
In an
interview, when asked about her social media usage, she says:
"when I go to a doctor, I don't listen, I'm like yeh I'm gonna read up about this later….but yeh trying to pitch medical advice in 15 seconds on TikTok…that's been a challenge". The fact that she, as a doctor, is surprised that it's difficult to condense medical advice for major surgery in response to a complex mental health condition into a 15 second soundbite, tells us just how much self-awareness she is lacking.
Most shocking of all is the fact that Gallagher carries out surgery on children and appears to long for the day in which she can cut open even greater numbers. She has previously
stated that she performs upwards of a dozen mastectomies on children every year.
In another
interview, when asked the youngest age a girl can receive surgery, Gallagher admits having performed double mastectomies on girls as young as just 14 years old. When it comes to 'bottom surgery', she states in a sad voice that this is much more difficult and that, for now,
"we are stuck with 18 years old as the minimum age".
In fact, Gallagher seems willing to throw the entire Hippocratic Oath out the window in order to carry out her trade.
On her
website, Gallagher brags about the fact that she is
"pretty lax about weight requirements" for surgery
. She tells prospective patients:
"In an effort to be as inclusive as possible we do not have an absolute cut off BMI requirement for patients who are interested in undergoing top surgery. Sure, in an ideal world a patient should not be obese before surgery. This however is not always possible and it's Dr Gallagher's philosophy that often times the benefits of surgery outweigh the risks".
Given the significant risk to life in performing major surgery on obese patients, Gallagher should be struck off the medical register for this one paragraph alone.
When it comes to patients and the very real risk of regret following sex re-assignment surgery (which we know exists from the sadly increasing numbers of detransitioners speaking out), Gallagher again seeks to explain away. In a video talking about
'depression after surgery', she tells patients that this will almost certainly be as a result of
"being out of a daily routine" or "
not having morning coffee".
Gallagher is also a major proponent of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), whose latest set of
guidelines recommend removing minimum ages for surgery on children, support breast binding and genital tucking, and seek to recognise 'eunuchs' as a distinct gender identity.
Yet, the image she seeks to offer to prospective patients is one of a trendy, empowered woman. For example, on her website, she refers to her sister, Neasa, (who runs the clinic with her) as her
"younger (cooler) sister…she is Dr. Gallagher's self-appointed stylist and brand manager". She describes listening to Hip Hop or Electronic Dance Music while at the operating table.
The clinic even has its own resident support dog, called 'Angel Baby'. From looking at photographs of the clinic, one might imagine going in to have your nails done, rather than have your breasts cut off.
And the services provided by Gallagher truly are a pick n mix. The surgical procedures
offered are split into those for 'Assigned Male at Birth' and those 'Assigned Female at Birth'. A shopping list of surgeries are suggested, ranging from vaginoplasty to phalloplasty.
There are special deals, such as a
"drain-free double incision top surgery with free nipple graft".
She even offers the creation of a
"custom clitoris", whatever the hell that is.
When patients come in for one procedure, Gallagher offers deals on
"add-ons", such a thigh lift, liposuction or labiaplasty.
She even offers surgery for 'non-binary' individuals, telling them:
"with masculinizing top surgeries patients may choose a size or position of nipple that is not typical for a binary male chest". She even offers complete nipple removal. There is no medical textbook which tells us what a 'non-binary' body looks like. It appears, therefore, that Gallagher is simply making things up as she goes along.
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Things become very serious, however, when it comes to payment. Gallagher offers a number of credit financing companies for those patients who cannot afford her extortionate fees, which, for many procedures, are well over $10,000.
It is particularly depressing to read the
reviews on her website.
One former patient says that the surgery was
"euphoria inducing…I'm no longer disturbed by the sight of my chest and finally feel at home in my body". The fact that there are girls out there who feel the only answer to hating their body is to remove parts of it is beyond saddening.
Gallagher's flashy status is also apparent. One former patient says:
"It felt like I was meeting a celebrity…Dr. Gallagher is a magician". How can patients make truly informed life-changing decisions when they view Gallagher as some sort of demi-god?
The factory-line nature of Gallagher's practice is clear, with one patient writing:
"It did feel like the surgery moved really fast and there wasn't much time to talk in person".
The chillingly laissez-faire approach to the human body is seen in the prospective patient who writes:
"I am hoping that one day I can go here to get the big chop done".
Most telling of all was one former patient who went under the knife, writing:
"Am I mentally ill? Sure. I'm diagnosed with severe depression, anxiety, and PTSD…I was operated on before my brain was fully developed".
Yet, on the part of Gallagher, there is no self-reflection or self-awareness whatsoever. She describes herself, without a hint of irony, as having a passion
"for making people feel as comfortable as possible in their skin".
In an interview with the
Irish Times, she said:
"The work itself is gratifying beyond belief; it is really my dream practice".
For someone's dream to be the mutilation of vulnerable and mentally unwell boys and girls, men and women, in pursuit of large profit, sends a shiver down my spine.
The sooner she is struck off, the better.
