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Patient families confirm appointment, prescription cancellations due to Tennessee law<\/p>\n
The VUMC health care system, which has been legally separate<\/a>\u00a0from Vanderbilt University\u00a0since 2016, suspended gender-affirming surgeries for people under 18<\/a> in 2022 following a state ban on the treatment. That ban was upheld after reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. VUMC also turned over<\/a> a list of transgender patients\u2019 health records\u00a0 to Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti in 2023. Last year, VUMC gutted its specialized LGBTQ health clinic<\/a>, a severe blow to transgender health. Conservative media and politicians, including Tennessee’s U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, previously attacked VUMC for offering transgender health care.<\/p>\n Vanderbilt confirmed the end of gender-affirming surgeries to the Scene with a written statement. These surgeries include orchiectomies, a testicular removal surgery, and subcutaneous mastectomies, the removal of breast tissue also known as \u201ctop surgery.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDue to operational limitations and lack of surgical coverage, Vanderbilt Health will cease providing gender-affirming plastic surgeries for adults,\u201d said a VUMC spokesperson in an email Friday afternoon. \u201cVanderbilt Health continues to provide nonsurgical gender-affirming care for adults 19 years and older. Vanderbilt Health does not provide any gender-affirming care for patients younger than 19. We are in the process of contacting our patients regarding these changes.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Metro Council’s LGBTQ Caucus condemns years-long pattern of rollbacks from hospital<\/p>\n As it stands, gender-affirming surgery is legal for adults in Tennessee. However, a bill<\/a> that would prohibit TennCare from covering gender-affirming care moved forward in the House this week. In 2023, a similar bill<\/a> that would have prohibited TennCare from contracting with providers that cover gender-affirming treatment failed.<\/p>\n One patient contacted today about the change, whose previously scheduled surgery will still take place, expressed worry about follow-up care or complications that might result from an upcoming gender-affirming surgery.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis sent me personally into a massive tailspin,\u201d they tell the Scene, speaking on the condition of anonymity. \u201cWhat if there are complications? What if I need follow-up surgery? This is unbelievably horrific and affects essentially everyone in our immediate and broader community. This is not only a trans issue, this is an issue for everyone who calls Tennessee home. Are my options now to travel elsewhere for my needed health care?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Vanderbilt University Medical Center is the dominant health care provider in Middle Tennessee, and its flagship hospital in Midtown is the state\u2019s only ACS-verified Level 1 Trauma Center.<\/p>\n Hannah Herner contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vanderbilt University Medical Center will cease gender-affirming surgeries for adults after years of offering the health care option.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[63080,97,252,253,3026,140286,207704,71739,221904],"class_list":{"0":"post-481012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-gender-affirming-care","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-health-care","11":"tag-healthcare","12":"tag-lgbtq","13":"tag-nashville-news","14":"tag-trans-health-care","15":"tag-vanderbilt-university-medical-center","16":"tag-vumc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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