Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora has stopped performing gender-affirming surgeries on patients over the age of 18 and removed references to such care from its website, The Denver Post reported July 18.
"We have been receiving unprecedented referrals for gender-affirming care, and in order to continue delivering expert multidisciplinary care to our pediatric patients and their families, we have made the difficult decision to no longer provide gender-affirming surgical procedures for adult patients 18 years of age and older," hospital spokesperson Rachael Fowler said in a July 19 statement sent to Becker's. "Our team is now working with impacted adult patients to explore referrals to the many other hospitals in the region that provide this care for adults."
The hospital never offered gender-affirming surgery to minors, but it will stop offering chest reconstruction to young adult patients, according to the Post. Children's Hospital Colorado will continue to offer nonsurgical gender-affirming care, such as puberty-blocking hormones.
According to the report, a phone directory on the hospital's website includes a number for the True Center for Gender Diversity, though the second half of the center's name was removed from the listing. Inputting the center's name into the search bar on the hospital's website does not bring up any information about the center.
"Children's hospitals across the country have been directly threatened as a result of the gender-affirming care provided in their institutions," hospital spokesperson Rachael Fowler said in a statement to the Post. "We have taken steps as an organization to protect the safety of our team members, patients and families."
Over the past few years, many hospitals across the U.S. have been the target of online harassment campaigns and threats surrounding gender-affirming care programs. However, threats "did not drive our decision to no longer provide gender-affirming surgical procuedures for adult patients," Ms. Fowler said.