UPMC will no longer offer pediatric gender-affirming care, leaving advocates for the LGBTQ+ community in Pittsburgh worried for the younger generations.
On Sept. 18, UPMC came to an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to end pediatric gender-affirming care, following a year-long federal investigation looking into potential violations of federal law. Transgender community advocates in Pittsburgh told The Pitt News they are scared for LGBTQ+ youth, fervently condemning the agreement.
UPMC, the largest network of healthcare providers in Pittsburgh with over 40 locations across Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia, will stop administering hormones and puberty blockers to minors. It will also stop performing surgical procedures, among other provisions of care.
The DOJ subpoenaed UPMC and more than 20 hospitals last summer, asking for patient records of children receiving gender-affirming care. These records were requested for an investigation into potential violations of federal healthcare laws, including the False Claims Act, which addresses fraudulent billing.
One Pittsburgh resident and faculty member at Pitt whose child received pediatric gender-affirming care from UPMC said it was extremely important for their child’s development. They requested anonymity for privacy reasons.
“We went to all the doctor’s appointments together. They were fabulous,” the resident said.
They said their child was depressed before receiving the care, as a result of his gender dysphoria.
“Our child started taking the lowest dose of testosterone. He immediately started feeling better about himself,” the resident said. “He felt confident and strong. A lot of insecurities went away.”
After losing access to UPMC’s gender-affirming care, they had to turn to a much more expensive private healthcare provider.
Some UPMC employees told the resident they risked losing their medical licenses if they did not comply with the DOJ’s requests.
“They were scared. They were really, really scared,” the resident said.
According to a DOJ press release announcing the agreement, the investigation’s purpose was to protect children from what it called “dangerous” gender-affirming procedures for minors.
UPMC said in a statement that it chose to resolve the matter to avoid prolonged litigation, protect patients and families from unnecessary disclosure of sensitive personal and health information, protect employees and remain focused on patient care and advancing its core mission.
“The agreement includes important privacy, confidentiality and non-prosecution protections for patients, legal guardians, providers and employees, and expressly includes no admission of wrongdoing, fault or liability by anyone involved in providing or receiving gender-affirming care to minors at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh or other UPMC-affiliated facilities,” UPMC said in the statement.
Dana, a member of Pitt’s Transgender Working Group who requested to use a pseudonym to avoid impact on her job, condemned UPMC’s agreement.
“From my perspective, UPMC chose to stop providing that care in response to outside political pressure,” Dana said. “I find that very difficult to reconcile with the UPMC I thought I knew.”
Dana, a transgender woman who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, lived her early life without access to gender-affirming care or information about transgender people.
“Back then, being transgender was not even a concept I knew even existed. I was taught that boys were boys, and girls were girls, and that was that,” Dana said.
Dana said her life would have been significantly improved if she had access to gender-affirming care in her teenage years.
“I believe I could have been spared decades of depression, confusion, dissociation and trying to fix everything else in my life except the thing that was actually wrong. I came frighteningly close to losing not just all of those years, but my life itself,” Dana said.
Dana believes UPMC’s agreement will negatively impact transgender youth and said transgender adolescents who need help will be neglected.
“It honestly terrifies me, because I know what untreated gender dysphoria did to me,” Dana said.
The DOJ reached a similar agreement with NYU Langone Hospitals last week, as well as the Mount Sinai Health System, Texas Children’s Hospital, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Connecticut Children’s hospital earlier this year.
Alicyn, the incoming president of LGBTQ+ advocacy organization PFLAG Pittsburgh who requested to be referred to by her first name, called the agreement “completely unnecessary and deeply harmful.” She explained UPMC’s gender clinic followed standards supported by peer-reviewed, evidence-based scientific research and that it had saved and improved the lives of many of the families and children PFLAG supports.
“The institution’s cowardly caving to the ignorant and hateful opinions of those in power has left a permanent taint, and our communities will not forgive or forget them,” she said.