In part 3 of our series on trans healthcare in the US we spoke with families who are seeking medical services in states that currently prohibit or ban gender affirming care for youth. CNN reports that as of June the healthcare landscape is as follows (click the image to read the article):
Read along to learn how these restrictions impact our camper families. Kansas “We have an endocrinologist established here in Kansas, but their main campus sits on the Missouri side - where gender affirming care is banned. They’re still seeing him but made it clear it would be shots only when he hits puberty, they opted out of the implant because of the laws. So, I have him on the waitlist at the Tru Center in Denver. I can’t take the risk that it will remain an option since we almost lost access to care here in Kansas. We’ve been on the waitlist for almost a year so should be getting a call anytime. When we do, we have to drive and cross the Colorado border and take the initial intake call, since they don’t have anyone licensed in Kansas. It’s crazy, but I’m going to do whatever it takes to make sure he has the care he needs.” Florida “Our 9 year old was being seen at our local gender-affirming clinic in Florida, but then the clinic closed at the end of last year due to political pressure. We have unfortunately not figured out a good alternative yet; there are none in our area so we are looking out of state for one.” Tennessee
“We have a trans friendly pediatrician, and they referred us to an endocrinologist to establish care; however, we were blocked at that point. We were told that they were not currently seeing any new patients for gender affirmative care due to legislation. They wouldn’t even see us for running bloodwork. We have not tried further since our initial inquiry and the state legislature is still pending trial.”
Missouri
“We have not established trans specific healthcare at all yet, primarily because our kiddo just turned 7. We did contact the TRUE Center in Denver this past spring (I think April or May) to get into their system. We don’t yet have an appointment scheduled, but they said they would call us “in about 6 months” to schedule something. And they anticipate the first appointment would be virtual. So we will likely need to drive across Kansas just across the border of Colorado in order to have that virtual appointment (we live in Missouri). Then I guess we’ll take it from there; we don’t really know what to expect.”
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Harvard: Fighting for Gender Affirming Care
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