by Staff Reporter | Feb 12, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Phoenix Children’s Hospital no longer provides gender transitions for children, parents of gender dysphoric children learned this week.
The hospital pumped the brakes for its Gender Support Program (formerly the Gender Management Program) shortly after President Donald Trump issued an executive order banning gender transitions for children, “Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.”
“Due to the recent executive order issued on January 28, 2025 Phoenix Children’s is indefinitely pausing gender-affirming medical care for children under the age of 19,” read a notice issued by the hospital to patient portals involved in their gender transition program.
Like Trump’s other executive orders, the president’s mandate ending gender transitions for children quickly faced legal challenges.
As a result of its pause on the gender transition program, Phoenix Children’s Hospital arranged for its pharmacists to wean program children off of any puberty blockers or hormones.
On Monday, parents also received letters from providers Vinny Chulani and Ashish Patel advising of the end to puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy.
The hospital marketed its Gender Support Program as the most comprehensive in the state. The program offered consultation for parenting strategies, endocrinology consults, and referrals to mental health providers and specialists for various procedures.
These consultations would explore the use of puberty-suppressing medications as well as masculinizing and feminizing hormonal therapies. The hospital also provided support and advocacy for social transition endeavors in schools and the public through legal name and gender marker changes on identifying documents.
At one time, the hospital affiliated its Gender Support Program with the Arizona Trans Youth and Parent Organization.
Public details of the program in recent years became less available. After AZ Free News covered Phoenix Children’s Hospital’s gender transition program at length, the hospital scrubbed more public information of its program from its website.
The extension of transgender ideology to children offered a sort of community for parents affirming the gender dysphoria of their children. Parents of children who underwent gender transition procedures offered by Phoenix Children’s Hospital would join the Gender Proud Patient and Family Advisory Council.
Activist groups issued a statement lamenting Phoenix Children’s Hospital’s decision as a “betrayal” to their cause.
“Gender-affirming care has been shown to significantly improve the mental, emotional, and physical health of transgender youth,” said the coalition. “To remove access to this care in Arizona is a direct attack on the trans community and the families who have fought tirelessly for their children’s well-being.”
Those who signed onto the statement: Tami Staas, the Arizona Trans Youth and Parent Organization; Carol Tappenden, the Education Action Alliance (formerly GLSEN Arizona); Brandie Reiner, NASW Arizona; Dustin Griswold, Family Planning Associates Medical Group; Jeanne Casteen, Secular AZ; Civia Tamarkin, National Council of Jewish Women Arizona; Nate Rhoton, one-n-ten; Grace Chenal, SIGA Therapy; Darrell Hill, ACLU of Arizona; Lynn Davis, Rabbi Joseph H. Gumbiner Community Action Project; Lori Shepherd, Tucson Jewish Museum & Holocaust Center; Athena Salman, Reproductive Freedom for All Arizona; Maria Ingalla, psychiatric mental health nurse and practitioner; and Jodi Liggett, Arizona Center for Women’s Advancement.
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by Staff Reporter | Oct 12, 2024 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Hundreds of Arizona’s children underwent sex change procedures from 2019 to 2023, according to data compiled by watchdog Do No Harm.
According to the organization’s database, there were nearly 80 total surgery patients, nearly 170 total hormone and puberty blocker patients, and over 1,400 prescriptions written for those patients: all amounting to over $1.7 million in charges.
At least 86 children underwent their sex change procedures at Phoenix Children’s Hospital: one received surgery and 86 received hormone and puberty blockers (HPB), all for the estimated price of over $121,700.
Phoenix Children’s Hospital didn’t make Do No Harm’s top 12 in terms of sex change procedures for minors. Those were, in order from number one to twelve: the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, Children’s Minnesota, Seattle’s Children’s, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Boston Children’s Hospital, Rady Children’s Hospital (California), Children’s National Medical Center (Washington, DC), USCF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland (California), Children’s Hospital Colorado, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
The following are the 42 medical facilities and providers that reportedly provided the sex change procedures to Arizona children (not including the categorization of an “independent facility” which covered 22 HPB patients). This data was pulled from the healthcare organization’s National Provider Identifier (NPI) record in the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES):
- Tucson Medical Center: 6 surgery patients, 31 HPB patients
- HonorHealth Scottsdale Shea Medical Center: 23 surgery patients, 1 HPB patient
- Scottsdale Surgical Partners: 23 surgery patients
- HonorHealth Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center: 14 surgery patients, 1 HPB patient
- Mission Hospital Memorial Campus: 7 HPB patients
- Northwest Tucson Surgery Center LP: 6 surgery patients
- Banner University Medical Center Phoenix: 2 surgery patients, 3 HPB patients
- Arizona Community Surgeons PC: 4 surgery patients
- Northwest Medical Center: 2 surgery patients, 1 HPB patient
- HonorHealth Deer Valley Medical Center: 2 HPB patients
- HonorHealth John C. Lincoln Medical Center: 2 HPB patients
- Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center: 2 HPB patients
- Yuma Regional Medical Center: 2 HPB patients
- Abrazo Arrowhead Campus: 1 HPB patient
- Abrazo Central Campus: 1 surgery patient
- Arizona Urological Surgeons LLC: 1 surgery patient
- Banner Del E. Webb Medical Center: 1 HPB patient
- Banner Desert Medical Center: 1 HPB patient
- Banner Ironwood Medical Center: 1 HPB patient
- Banner Thunderbird Medical Center: 1 HPB patient
- Banner University Medical Center Tucson: 1 HPB patient
- Camp Lowell Surgery Center LLC: 1 surgery patient
- Cobre Valley Regional Medical Center: 1 HPB patient
- IU Health Methodist Hospital: 1 HPB patient
- Jason Daniel Johnson PLLC: 1 surgery patient
- La Paz Regional Hospital: 1 HPB patient
- Long Beach Medical Center: 1 HPB patient
- Maui Memorial Medical Center: 1 HPB patient
- Mayo Clinic Hospital Arizona: 1 surgery patient
- Mercy Gilbert Medical Center: 1 HPB patient
- Neurosurgical Associates LTD: 1 surgery patient
- Phoenix Indian Medical Center: 1 HPB patient
- Sagewest Riverton: 1 HPB patient
- Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital: 1 HPB patient
- Santa Cruz Valley Regional Hospital: 1 HPB patient
- Sina Inc.: 1 surgery patient
- St. George Regional Hospital: 1 HPB patient
- St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center: 1 HPB patient
- St. Mary’s Hospital: 1 HPB patient
- Dr. Steven H. Turkeltaub: 1 surgery patient
- Valley Anesthesiology Consultants Inc.: 1 surgery patient
- White Mountain Regional Medical Center: 1 HPB patient
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administers NPPES. NPIS are 10-digit numeric identifiers for provider transactions.
Per Do No Harm’s data, total procedures hit a peak in 2022 and declined slightly last year.
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