In July, the Denver Post reported that Children’s Hospital Colorado has stopped offering transgender surgeries on young adults but will continue providing non-surgical transgender procedures, citing the recent backlash against the procedures.
Hospital spokeswoman Rachael Fowler told the Post that Children’s Hospital Colorado never performed transgender surgeries on minors. She said the hospital’s adult patients are now being referred to other facilities for surgeries.
Fowler said patients seeking non-surgical transgender treatment like puberty blockers or hormone replacement can still receive treatment at Children’s Hospital Colorado.
According to Fowler, public backlash against children’s hospitals in the US providing transgender treatment to minors prompted Children’s Hospital Colorado to stop offering transgender surgery to those over 18.
The hospital has scrubbed most references to transgender treatment from its website, according to the Denver Post. While the phone directory still includes the number for the TRUE Center for Gender Diversity, the hospital removed the second half of the center’s name, and references to the center cannot be found on the hospital’s website. A search of the website on the word “transgender” only turns up results of some doctors’ names and articles on HIV prevention.
According to STAT News, as of last fall, at least 21 hospitals had changed their websites on transgender programs after being exposed online for providing transgender treatment to minors. Some websites only removed the names of clinicians while others removed entire pages.
Fowler told the Denver Post that the hospital has taken steps “to protect the safety” of its staff and patients.
The Daily Wire reported last week that while Colorado is one of the states working to protect transgender medical treatments for minors, at least twenty US states have taken steps to prevent minors from receiving the treatments.
